When the Ford Ranger PHEV was revealed last year, it was never confirmed for an American launch. But that could be changing. CarBuzz community member Renee has seen a Ranger PHEV on US soil, wearing US plates, sending in the photo of the truck they saw in traffic while driving in Colorado, and confirmation that it had PHEV badging and a charge port:
“Spotted this on the road in Colorado, I thought these were only overseas,” they told us, adding that it “Had a PHEV badge on the front fender and filler door/charging door on the rear fender. Just like the European one.”
- Base Trim Engine
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2.3L EcoBoost I4 ICE
- Base Trim Transmission
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10-speed automatic
- Base Trim Drivetrain
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Rear-Wheel Drive
Indeed, it’s a fantastic vehicle to spot in the US. The Ranger Wildtrak trim is not available in the US, and the Ford Ranger plug-in hybrid (PHEV) is not available in the US. Not yet, anyway, and we notice that this one is on Michigan manufacturer plates – meaning it’s Ford operating the vehicle in its hometown.
Renee C/CarBuzz/Valnet
Why Ford Might Have A Wildtrak PHEV in the US
There are a bunch of reasons Ford might have a Ranger trim or drivetrain in the US that it doesn’t sell here, so we’ve gone down route one and asked Ford directly for comment. We don’t expect any real clarification, particularly if Ford is planning to bring either the Ranger’s Wildtrak trim or PHEV drivetrain to the US, as automakers rarely want to show their hand and affect current sales with future releases.
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Bringing The PHEV Ranger To The US
The most interesting possibility is that Ford has imported a PHEV version of the Ranger to tweak or modify it to fit US regulations. This would mean it’s still in an early or experimental stage to bring a PHEV Ranger to the US market. If it were further down the path of a plan, we believe Ford would have the drivetrain in a US trim model. In that case, there would likely be several out in the wild testing, and all in stealth mode.
In Detroit, the home of Ford and Ford trucks, a Ranger with badging for a trim that doesn’t exist for it here, as Renee C has demonstrated, is something that an eagle-eyed enthusiast will notice. What gives us a little doubt is the fact that the hybrid Ranger is still rather new, revealed in 2023 and only launching in Europe earlier this year.
Bringing The Wildtrak Trim To The US
This Ranger Wildtrak out on the road in the US could, of course, be Ford thinking about bringing the Ranger Wildtrak trim, or equivalent of it, to the US. It’s a feature-rich but rugged off-road spec that would slot in nicely to the US Ranger’s trim ladder between the Lariat and the Raptor. However, the international engine options are between a 2.0-liter bi-turbo four-cylinder engine, a 3.0-liter V6, or the PHEV. None of which are available in the US.
The US-spec Ranger utilizes Ford’s 2.3-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder, an engine it shares with the Ranger PHEV, sans 75 KW electric motor. So perhaps it’s more about the trim Ford is evaluating for the market and not the powertrain itself.
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Or It Could Be Nothing More Than Ford Testing Out Foreign Product
While both theories above are the most interesting, a third option also exists. Ford could just be testing it out with zero intention of bringing it here. Ford CEO Jim Farley has driven Chinese EVs in America for benchmarking purposes, and in 2023, another CarBuzz reader spotted the China-only Ford Mondeo sedan on American roads, also in Colorado. That was two years ago, and Ford has yet to launch a new Mondeo/Fusion for the US market.
It’s impossible to draw a single conclusion from a single model imported into the US by Ford and being driven on the road in the company’s hometown. It could be as innocent as Ford bringing it over just so employees could drive and experience the drivetrain in the Ranger. That would be the simplest reason that it’s running around with the trim badge on the back.
A PHEV test vehicle would also explain why, when we bring up the brightness on the tires, it doesn’t appear to be running on the trim’s standard all-terrain tires. They look like regular road tires to us. If you want our best guess, Ford is in the early stages of bringing the PHEV to the US. Of course, if Ford replies to our request for a comment, we will update this story.
Got a tip for us? We want to know!
If, like Renee, you’ve seen something interesting on America’s roads or have a cool story you think we’d like to know about, email us at [email protected].
