Ford’s Australian engineering headquarters secure into the 2030s

There was a chance Australia’s largest employer of automotive engineers – more than 1500 all told – was on the brink of scaling back its operations when the Ford Ranger and  Ford F-150 were due to merge from 2027. But that’s changed, and it’s good news for local knowhow. 

US car giant Ford’s engineering centre in Australia – the largest of its type in the region and which employs more than 1500 engineers – is secure for least another decade after Detroit made a U-turn on a radical plan to merge the next Ranger and F-150 pick-ups.

Three years ago, Ford foreshadowed a massive upheaval in the way it develops future pick-ups such as the Ford Ranger mid-size utility sold in 180 countries and the Ford F-150 full-size utility sold primarily in North America.

At the time, Ford foreshadowed that from 2027 onwards the Ford Ranger – the development of which is based in Australia, even though it is made in five countries – would be more closely aligned with the next-generation Ford F-150 sold in the US.

The move to merge the development of the two vehicles was designed to cut costs, and there was a risk Ford would scale back its Australian engineering resources.

However, Ford has since made a U-turn on that decision and the Ford Ranger will remain a standalone program “well into the 2030s”, in the process securing the jobs of more than 1500 vehicle engineers in Australia.

While Ford would not speculate on what this decision would mean to secure the jobs of thousands of Australian engineers, the global chief engineer for the Ford Ranger, Ian Foston, told Drive at a media preview this week: 

“I’m never a predictor of the future (but) I am saying at the moment, the corporation gave me a lot of money to develop this new platform so you want to get your life out of it.

“We’ve already been given another approval to continue doing further developments (of this platform) and long may that continue.” 

The accelerated push towards electrification is believed to have prompted Ford to postpone the merging of the Ranger and F-150 pick-up programs. 

Instead, the latest, updated Ranger platform – referred to internally as the ‘T6 second generation’ – will continue for the foreseeable future.

“Certainly T6 as a platform will go well into the 2030s. I won’t say where in the 2030s, but it will go well into the 2030s,” said Mr Foston.

The senior Ford executive said once the decision was made to continue with the existing arrangements – by keeping Ranger and F-150 as separate programs – Ford invested heavily in “future proofing” the Ranger and Everest platform so it could also adopt hybrid and fully electric power, if required.

“We have a strategy where we can offer diesel or petrol vehicles – or electrified vehicles, whether that’s a mild hybrid, a plug-in hybrid, or a fully electric model.”

Mr Foston said 2027 “was going to be where we do a major (model) change.”

However, those circumstances have changed.

“What we’ve done with electrification, we’ve now got a really clear view about where it’s heading, so we know what (vehicle emissions) legislations come in and when,” said Mr Foston. 

“We also now have a clearer idea of what customers are asking for in terms of alternative powertrains. We’re pretty happy with what we call our ‘dual energy strategy’ going forward.

“So it will be in the 2030s when we actually think about the next generational change (to the Ranger).”

Apart from a major mid-life facelift – which in the ute market customarily occurs at about the five or six year mark of a 10 or 11 year model cycle – the new Ranger that’s about to turn up in showrooms mid-year has been given a new lease on life of at least a decade or so.

One complicating factor for Ford – and another reason to keep the status quo – is that the Ford Ranger is made in five factories around the world. Tooling up for major changes in five factories is a massive task.

“Retooling the frame (the vehicle chassis) like we have done in five major manufacturing locations is really, really expensive,” said Mr Foston. “So you only want to do that very rarely.”

The other challenge for Ford and other automakers is forecasting what features – and engine options – customers will want five to 10 years from now. And beyond.

“For a time it was hard to forecast what’s going to happen (in terms of customer trends and vehicle legislation) over the next 10 years or more,” said Mr Foston.

“But things have become much clearer in the past couple of years and we’re now certain of where we’re heading.

“Certainly in the southern hemisphere, we don’t see the transition to electric vehicles happening as quickly as it has in Europe and North America. 

“The take-up of electric vehicles will be sharper in New Zealand (due to new legislation there). But in Thailand the shift to electrification may be towards the end of the 2020s or into the 2030s. 

“Authorities in South America and Brazil are considering their electric vehicle mandates, but for now they’re all just thoughts, so we are committed to offering customers a choice of (powertrain) options. 

“Offering a multi-energy solution gives us flexibility, so we offer our customers an electrified vehicle or petrol or diesel. It’s a market choice.”

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