Words: Kyle Cassidy
Published 27 May 2026
The Ford Ranger has just been put through yet another update, the MY2026.5 range about to go on sale here in New Zealand. Its main competition, the Toyota Hilux, has also been through a more thorough renewal, and its line up now includes a fully electric model too.
So where is the Ford Ranger BEV equivalent?
At a recent Ranger media event in Australia, Mario Brandini, program director of the T6 platform, said the world was “in debate of where it’s going, what’s the future of diesel, what’s the future of gas or petrol, how far do you tip in electrification?”
Brandini says Ford always relates everything it does back to the customer.
“We’re out talking to the customers, working out what we really need and then looking how technology can help deliver that.”
He says while the next generation of Ranger is ‘on their minds’, he states the current Ranger has ‘got a lot of life in it and it’s delivering what it needs to deliver’.
He highlights the hybrid Ranger for example. “It’s delivering because we looked at technology, we looked at what customers wanted, they wanted capability but they wanted a level of electrification.
“Some companies have gone one way for a lot of electrification and lose capability. We’ve made sure that we’ve delivered what the customer wants while not losing capability.”
Brandini points to the flexibility of the Ranger’s T6 platform that has so far sprouted Raptor, the hybrid and the Super Duty.
“We are out with our customers, with our fleets, asking what do you need, what do you want, how can technology then close that gap.” He says the flexibility in the T6 platform gives it a long life and it can adapt, ‘depending on how technology goes’.
But as to whether we’ll actually see a full BEV Ranger, we are still left wondering.
Brandini says they could deliver such a ute if the BEV technology ‘allowed us to deliver the capability we’re looking for at the moment. I would say that full EV, in terms of what this type of vehicle can do, if you want to deliver the capability, it’s just laws of physics, you can’t get there. But it doesn’t mean you can’t in the future. So we continue to look at that and then look at the benefit…will the customer benefit from that value?”
