Ford’s Silverton Assembly Plant in Pretoria has officially commenced production of the new Ford Ranger, bringing a raft of product upgrades and refinements to the Ranger in the process.
“Following the investment of over R3-billion in our local operations and extensive upgrades to our plants over the past 18 months, we are delighted to see the first of the new Ford Ranger models coming off our production line,” says Neale Hill, Managing Director, Ford Motor Company Sub-Saharan Africa Region.
“This is an extremely important and exciting year for the Ford Ranger, which will also see the launch of the first-ever Ranger Raptor that is undoubtedly one of this year’s most highly anticipated new models,” Hill adds.
A few of the range-topping models, including the Ranger Raptor, will be powered by the all-new 2.0-litre twin-turbocharged diesel engine, which is also locally manufactured at Ford’s Struandale Engine Plant in Port Elizabeth.
This unit produces 157kW and 500Nm of torque – up by 10kW and 30Nm compared with the current 3.2 TDCi. Ford also claims a decrease in fuel consumption (9%) when combined with the advanced new 10-speed automatic transmission.
Other models will feature a 2.0-litre single turbo version of this engine, which produces 132kW and 420Nm of torque, also mated to the 10-speed transmission.
The older 2.2-litre and 3.2-litre engines have not been dropped, as various other models will still make use of them. As usual, the line-up includes Single Cab, Super Cab and Double Cab body styles to suit customer requirements.
In addition to some minor styling tweaks, range-topping models will also feature some new safety kit. The Wildtrak will have pre-collision assist and active park assist.
Ford’s SYNC3 system with Navigation will also feature prominently higher up in the range.
