Detroit - Don’t expect a Ford Ranger Raptor in the Dakar any time soon, but never say never too soon either.
That’s the word from Trevor Worthington, vice president of Ford’s ICE product programmes and the Ford Performance programme, speaking in Detroit recently.
“When I joined the Ford Performance team, one of the observations I made was that we have all these iconic vehicles, and we’re not using them the way we should. Our spending was pretty much on V8 Supercar and Nascar with Mustang.
“Since then, we’ve expanded Bronco with the Bronco 4 600 and 4 400 bespoke race vehicles, so we’ve done all the hard work, and frankly I’d love to see Ranger compete in these global iconic events. The architecture suits it and if Ranger customers saw them in those races, it would certainly resonate with them. A tough, rugged, capable go-anywhere vehicle.
“We have no plans that we want to talk about, but like I said, I’d really like to see that happening because Ranger is the type of vehicle that lends itself to something like that,” said Worthington.
Ford South Africa wasn’t saying much either when we asked, but fingers crossed that with global financial backing, the Neil Woolridge Motorsport designed and built Ranger competing in the South African Cross Country Series in the Class FIA T1+ may feature in the Dakar sometime in the future.
And while motorsport grabs the attention of enthusiasts across the world, the business of making ICE vehicles continues for Ford.
“The vast majority of our business and the majority of our money is still being spent in the ICE business, which is our volume business, so it’s incredibly important to us,” said Worthington.
“Even in markets that are transitioning quickly to EVs, they are transitioning in a way that still depends on the underpinnings of the ICE vehicle. The money generated to support our BEV business still comes from the internal combustion engine range.
“A lot of people say that we currently have the best range of vehicles we’ve ever had in the business, with iconic nameplates. Ranger and Everest are very important to us; so to Bronco, F-Series and Mustang. They create profits for the company but are also the reason why people come to Ford.”
According to Worthington, different markets have different views, incentives, and infrastructures, and customers will decide what suits them and for many, that’s still ICE.
“We have ICE because our customers still want them, and it’s our duty to execute this really well. There are unmet needs and if you take the first-generation Ranger, we didn’t have a global market for Raptor; there was one, but we didn’t have a solution, so we have to look at what the incremental opportunities are to serve those customers.
“We didn’t have a V6, so that’s one thing we had to look at in the IMG (South Africa, North Africa, Australia, Thailand and the Middle East) market, and if there’s a need and it makes business sense, then we’ll address them.”
Listening to what customers want has been a large part of Ford’s mantra in recent years and much of that interaction is seen in the new Ranger and Everest.
“We spoke to thousands of customers, and in one session we asked the facilitator to take everyone outside to their vehicles, not just restricted to Ford products. People spend thousands on engineering their vehicles for many different applications ranging from work to leisure needs. We looked at that and saw how it could be incorporated into the new Ranger and Raptor.
“Ranger and Everest is sold in 180 markets. It's our most diverse product that we sell so that process of listening to customers is vital to us. We have to understand their needs,” he added.
But back to racing and keeping ICE vehicles beyond the various dates certain countries have decreed as a cut-off, there are strong moves afoot around the globe regarding the possibility of synthetic fuel.
“I think it’s important for ICE going forward,” said Worthington.
“We're working with a number of our suppliers and, as manufacturers, speaking to racing organisations that we should be part of that discussion. One of the things about motorsport is the noise and everything that goes with that, so if you can keep that and use synthetic fuels that are greener and less harmful we actually support that.
“To create massive infrastructure to make synthetic fuels is incredibly expensive, and like many of these things, it starts on the fringe before going mainstream, and I believe the racing industry is a good place to start,” he concluded.