Ford Ranger News

The New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) applies to new cars sold in the Australian market and is aimed at keeping Australia on track to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, so said the Federal Government.NVES rules came into effect on January 1 this year but the accumulation of units and penalties won’t start until July 1 this year.Carmarkers are already rethinking their line-ups in order to meet the NVES guidelines, with Ford ditching some of its 4x2 variants of the Everest and Isuzu rumoured to be deleting some 4x2 variants from its MU-X range.The upcoming Kia Tasman will have a 2.2-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine and the likelihood Isuzu and Mazda will replace any of their 3.0-litre ute offerings with a smaller 2.2-litre unit to save on emissions and avoid any NVES-related strife, are we about to say “hoo-roo” to V6 utes?Read on.They may not elicit the same heart-thumping excitement as a V6 or V8, smaller engines have for a long time now proven their worth in utes. They’re refined, fuel efficient, and produce more than adequate amounts of power and torque to be able to haul a load, tow a caravan, horse float or power boat, and go off-road.Throw in impressive high- and low-range gearing, seamless driver-assist tech, a well-calibrated traction control system, and diff locks, and utes with small engines onboard, rather than being outgunned by V6s, are setting the gold standard for effectiveness in tough environments and being able to meet strict new emissions laws.Utes with smaller engines have been around for donkey’s years, but the new-ish wave of them – including the Isuzu D-Max’s 2.2-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel (120kW/400Nm) and the Toyota HiLux’s 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel (150kW/500Nm) with mild-hybrid technology – look poised to ensure V6 utes are consigned to the history books.The new Isuzu engine is 10kW/50Nm better then the brand’s 1.9-litre engine (110kW/350Nm) but 20kW/50Nm down on the 3.0-litre unit it is set to replace – no big deal though because those lesser power and torque aren’t deal-breakers for most. Besides, its 120kW/400Nm outputs match those of the GWM Ute (120kW/400Nm) and put it right in the mix with the Jac T9 (120kW/410Nm) and KGM Ssangyong Musso (133kW/400-420Nm).The HiLux’s 2.8-litre set-up doesn’t seem to have hampered its appeal with fans of Australian utes, certainly not in terms of sales.What’s more, the much-loved LandCruiser 79 Series benefits from its 2.8L four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine (150kW/500Nm), which produces plenty of low-down torque. Add in a 44:1 crawl ratio and, depending on the spec, front and rear diff locks, and this 79 is near-unstoppable off-road.Don’t forget the even newer wave of utes either.Beyond its polarising looks, the Kia Tasman already has tongues a-wagging – not the least because of its 2.2-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine (154kW and 441Nm), that’s equivalent to the Ford Ranger’s 2.0-litre bi-turbo (154kW/500Nm) in terms of power but 59Nm of torque less.Word is the Tasman will be able to tow the ute industry standard of 3500kg (braked) and will likely have a payload of 1000kg or over, depending on the variant. So, nothing to sniff at there.The Tasman is due to be launched in Australia later this year and is tipped to be, if not a game-changer, a ute that will help move the crowd forward into a hopefully less-polluted future.And how about hybrids?The BYD Shark 6 plug-in hybrid ute – a first for Australia – has a 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine with dual electric motors: a 170kW/310Nm front motor and a 150kW/340Nm rear motor (total: 320kW/650Nm).This BYD ute has a claimed driving range of 100km (electric only), and about 850km (hybrid).The Shark has a listed payload of 850kg and braked towing capacity of 2500kg. It doesn’t have the 1000kg payload or 3500kg market-standard towing capacity of non-hybrid utes, but it can still take on a weighty load and clock up big distances before it needs to be refuelled/recharged.In terms of robustness over time, it’s largely unproven as yet – because it hasn’t been on the market long enough for anyone to make an informed judgement. On paper at least, the Shark 6 has plenty of potential to give the ute realm a healthy nudge into the future as part of a new wave of utes equipped with smaller engines, hybrid systems and new technologies aimed at improving performance and efficiencies and reducing emissions.

Utes have been up there with the most popular vehicles bought by Australians for years, but sales have dropped significantly in 2025 signalling a huge change in buyer behaviour.

Here are the changes that we would like to see on the 2026 Ford Ranger facelift.

Ford isn’t taking any prisoners when it comes to the introduction of its Ranger PHEV (plug-in hybrid), openly dismissing the BYD Shark 6 and GWM Cannon Alpha PHEV as serious rivals.

Ford Australia has officially confirmed prices and details for its highly-anticipated plug-in hybrid (PHEV) Ranger ute.

More crucial powertrain details for the incoming Ford Ranger plug-in hybrid have been revealed.

Utes are Australia’s most popular type of vehicle, but which models offer the best resale value when the time comes to selling them? CarsGuide’s analytics team crunched the numbers so that we could bring you this exclusive report. 

If you think Chinese car brands can't teach Toyota, Ford or GM anything about making vehicles better, think again!

This is going to be the year of the plug-in hybrid ute.

What’s going on at Ford right now? Has the iconic motor company, the first in the world to bring cars to the masses, lost its way? Is it drowning in an incoming tide of Chinese electric vehicles it can’t compete against? Or does it know exactly what it’s doing and letting us live out our combustion engine dreams for now and giving us the car the electric brands can’t?In the past five years Ford has axed almost its entire line-up of vehicles in Australia. Those include the Puma and EcoSport small SUVs, the Escape mid-sized SUV, Focus and Fiesta hatches, Endura large SUV and Mondeo sedan. Today Ford’s range in Australia is tiny compared to most of its mainstream rivals such as Toyota and Kia. There’s the Ranger ute and its Everest SUV twin, the F-150 full-sized pick up truck, Mustang sportscar, electric Mustang Mach-E SUV and the Transit van and people movers.It was clear something was up at Ford about 10 years ago. In 2016 myself and several other motoring journalists were invited to Ford Australia’s head office in Broadmeadows Victoria for what was described as an informal chat. This meant leaving our phones in a plastic bucket at the door so we weren’t tempted to take photos of what was in the next room we were about to be led into. There was actually nothing in that next room apart some pastries, a coffee urn and waiting senior executives from the company, some of them from the United States. Actually there were more Ford people than journalists. They were very enthusiastic to tell us that there were lots of new Ford vehicles coming — especially SUVs."The days of having one SUV that is relevant to a whole bunch of people is over. It takes a proliferation of SUVs,” Ford Australia’s then Marketing Director Lew Echlin told me in that room.“The math is simple – the more SUVs that you have, the more customers that you have the opportunity to connect with… What we're attempting to get right now is shelf space. Edge we think will span several different consumer segments.”Edge was a large SUV about the same size as a Ford Territory and it was renamed the Endura for Australia. I went to the Endura’s launch in 2019, then the following year I covered it being axed from Australia. It was actually a really good SUV. But then so were many of the cars Ford axed — the Focus, the Fiesta, the Escape, the Mondeo, the Puma… but not the Ecosport.Ford would argue the reason was low sales and while that’s true it was because many of those models also being discontinued globally. Ford’s footprint was shrinking fast worldwide.The company’s global boss Jim Farley seemed to have a plan, actually he seemed to have many plans that he announced like New Year’s resolutions, only more frequently than just annually. “We aim to become the second biggest EV producer within the next couple of years,” Farley said on social media in 2021“... our ambition is for Ford to become the biggest EV maker in the world,” he continued.The tune had changed by 2024 when Farley told the Wall Street Journal that Chinese electric cars represented “an existential threat” and according to the same publication after he and Ford’s CFO John Lawler drove an electric vehicle in China, Lawler said “Jim this is nothing like before… these guys are ahead of us.” The latest Farley resolution came at the start of this year at the Detroit Motor show where he told industry website Automotive News that Ford was going to follow their own more exciting road.“Rule No.1 at Ford: no boring products,” Farley told Automotive News. “ We do not make shampoo.”It’s a bold statement, like they all were, but had Farley realised that Chinese EVs were too far ahead to catch right now and in the meantime the company would play to its strengths and make what it was good at like trucks and sportscars - the ones people actually bought?The Chinese aren’t making and selling V8 muscle cars or hardcore hi-performance off-road utes, and they weren't building anything that could threaten the F-Truck range.There would have been resistance from those high at Ford — the shelf-space executives — pointing out market share and losing a foothold. Ford lost A$2 billion in the first two months of 2024 trying to develop EVs through its electric Model E division without much success. Continuing down that road could just be an exercise in burning money.Ford’s presence in China is small. At the start of this year Farley announced the company earned A$958m in China 2024. This included exported vehicles.We’re also seeing Ford retract from the UK and European markets where strict emissions laws are putting pressure on the carmaker, which doesn’t have many vehicles that meet the tightening regulations.It appears then that Ford, while not completely walking away from EV development is putting most of its energy into models like the Mustang, Ranger and Everest, which last year accounted 90,552 sales between them in Australia. Just those three models puts Ford into the top 3 best selling brands in locally. There doesn’t seem to be a need for a Ford Focus or Mondeo, or even an electric car, not with numbers like this, not right now anyway.The same strategy appears to be used in the US where the line-up also includes the Bronco and Bronco Sport SUVs, along with the entire F-truck series, which has its high-performance models such as the F-150 Raptor R. The Mustang GTD is a racecar for-the-road version of the Mustang. The rest of the range is rounded out with the Explorer SUV and Edge with sporty ST variants. No sedans, not hatches and only three electric vehicles: the Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning and E-Transit van.Farley’s Ford appears to be doubling down on no-boring combustion cars and it could well work in Australia’s favour where given our love of Rangers, Ranger Raptors and Mustangs might lead to more of the kind of cars we want.If we’re going down this road what else could Ford do? Another new Ford GT to take on Chevrolet’s Corvette? A modern Thunderbird? A Ranger Raptor with a V8? A hardcore off-road SUV Toyota LandCruiser or Land Rover Defender rival?Speaking of off-road that reminds me. Farley also made another bold claim this year at the Detroit motor show to Automotive News.“Ford wants to be the No. 1 undisputed off-road brand in the world,” he told Automotive News. “We want to be the Porsche of off-road.”