Last month, following years of rumors and anticipation, the Ford Ranger PHEV finally debuted – albeit with little information to accommodate that reveal. We do know that the electrified pickup will be sold in Europe and Australia at a minimum, and that it will enter production in late 2024, with deliveries set to commence in early 2025. However, Ford hasn’t yet revealed where the Ranger plug-in hybrid will be built, though Cars.co.za seems to believe that The Blue Oval will tab South Africa for that particular task.
Production of the next-generation Ford Ranger began at the Silverton Assembly plant in South Africa late last year following a $1 billion dollar renovation, while the Struandale Engine plant also builds that pickup’s 3.0L V6 Power Stroke diesel engine, as well as 2.0L single- and bi-turbo diesel powerplants in that same part of the world. Thus, it would make quite a bit of sense for the electrified Ford Ranger PHEV to also be built there, and a little investigative work seems to provide some strong evidence that this is precisely what’s set to happen.
Ford process engineer Keerthana Suresh’s LinkedIn profile – who is based out of based in Chennai, India – notes that she is “currently working” on the Ford Ranger PHEV “battery pack assembly process” for the Silverton plant, and also notes that she has a “high-voltage safety level 1 battery pack assembly” certification. Specifically, the profile notes that Suresh is involved directly with “high-voltage safety” at the Silverton plant as well.
On top of that, Ford currently has a job listing posted for a “Battery Assembly Engineering Specialist” in South Africa posted on its global careers site, along with listings for an Engineering Specialist, Battery Assembly; an Engineering Controls Specialist, Battery Assembly; and a Production Process Coach, Battery Assembly – all in South Africa, and in some cases, not only near Silverton, but also Struandale – suggesting that the Ford Ranger PHEV may in fact be built in that particular country, even though no official announcement has been made as of yet.
We’ll have more on the Ranger PHEV soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for more Ford Ranger news and non-stop Ford news coverage.
A special H/T goes out to Ford Authority reader Ryan for passing along this information!
Comments
I wonder if Fain is paying attention to the global production opportunities that Ford has in place for their top selling models ? More options to move off shore ! The UAW may win the battle and lose the war.
Ford needs to bring the Ranger PHEV to the U.S.