By Otsile Kadiege

Ford South Africa recently celebrated the locally assembled Ranger’s one-millionth milestone. The Blue Oval’s popular nameplate was produced in South Africa between 2000 and 2024 for the domestic market and export around the world. Throughout the years, local manufacturing of the Ranger has created thousands of jobs at Ford and Ford has  invested extensively in local production of the Ranger since 2009, including the additional investment announced at its Centenary event for the all-new Ranger PHEV.

Three generations of Ranger

The first-generation Ranger was produced between 2000 and 2011, which included Ford South Africa’s first significant foray into export markets which commenced in 2008, with right-hand drive and left-hand drive models shipped from the Silverton Manufacturing Plant to markets across Africa. Production ended in late 2011 with more than 100 000 Rangers manufactured in what had been a multi-platform assembly facility, producing both passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.

As Ford’s first global pick-up truck, the second-generation Ranger was a true game-changer – both for the nature of the company’s local operations, and for the industry as a truly trend-setting vehicle with all-new levels of performance, space, comfort, safety, technology and capability.

Production at the Silverton plant transitioned to a high-volume flexible single platform for the 2011 Ranger, with the global export program at its core, and an initial installed capacity pegged at 110 000 vehicles per year. This revolutionary new model also led to significant investments in the Struandale Engine Plant in Gqeberha for the component machining and assembly of the 2.2L and 3.2L Duratorq TDCi engines.

Multiple evolutions of this model range followed over the years, including further advances in technology, safety and refinement that placed this highly capable and tough-as-nails workhorse on a par with luxury passenger cars. The 2019 addition of the powerful but efficient 2.0-litre Single Turbo and Bi-Turbo diesel engines, and the arrival of the groundbreaking first-ever Ranger Raptor, raised the ante even further. Accordingly, it was no surprise that the venerable pick-up had been elevated to top-selling status in the new vehicle sales charts in South Africa, and the versatile Ranger Double Cab became the default choice for a wide range of customers.

The second-generation Ranger chapter drew to a close in November 2022 with a total of 873 751 units produced in South Africa – with around two thirds making their way to export markets. The launch of the third and current-generation Ranger at the end of 2022 followed a massive investment and expansion program for the Silverton Manufacturing Plant to increase installed capacity to 200,000 vehicles per year – or 720 vehicles per day, which is the highest volume of any vehicle manufacturer in South Africa.

What’s next for Ranger?

As mentioned above, Ford South Africa has made further investments to the brand’s Silverton Manufacturing Plant in preparation for the plug-in hybrid version of the current generation Ranger.