Toyota HiLux vs Ford Ranger

What's the difference?

Toyota claims its first HiLux BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) has been designed primarily with mining, business and government fleet customers in mind, by combining the iconic ute’s 4x4 all-terrain capability with zero tailpipe emissions only a full-electric drivetrain can deliver.

To prove its suitability for harsh Aussie conditions, Toyota claims the HiLux BEV has undergone more than two years of testing on site with major mining companies, covering thousands of kilometres in ambient temperatures up to 50 degrees.

We recently sampled the HiLux BEV as a daily driver in metropolitan use, to see if its mining-focused credentials translate to being a practical alternative to traditional diesel power for tradies working in busy urban environments.

Ford has given its Ranger ute range a mild facelift. And mild is the word. If you look closely, you might notice some small visual changes, but the real news is under the bonnet where a new entry-level powerplant lives.

And however you look at it, this new engine that addresses the ownership issues experienced by some Ranger buyers since the bi-turbo diesel engine was released back in 2018, was probably overdue.

But the new powerplant comes at a cost; in terms of power and torque, even though the vital towing statistics remain for the Ranger.

The other changes that come with this facelift include some new tech, and the availability of the V6 turbo-diesel (which is unchanged) across the entire Ranger 4X4 dual-cab line-up.

For this review, we’ve concentrated on the new engine as being the major point of difference, and we’ve driven it the base-version XL trim specification. That means this is potentially the lightest variant, and heavier specifications might blunt the performance a little. But overall, this is representative of the new powertrain and represents the biggest point of difference in what is otherwise a very minor facelift.