Who said lightning doesn’t strike twice? First came the Ford F-150 Lightning, now the Ranger Lightning could be on its way.
Ford has trademarked both the Ranger and Maverick Lightning names in Europe, as first spied by CarBuzz.
The trademark filing doesn’t 100 per cent confirm a Ranger electric vehicle (EV) is coming; carmakers sometimes file trademarks to defend their branding. But we already know Ford is working on more electric utes to sit alongside the rampantly popular F-150 Lightning.
Ford F-150 Lightning
“We’re already pushing dirt down in Blue Oval City in Tennessee for another electric pickup truck that’s different to this one,” said Ford CEO Jim Farley, standing next to an F-150 Lightning at an event commemorating the start of its production.
“It’s another truck,” he elaborated to reporters, per an Automotive News report.
Calling it an “all-new” vehicle, Mr Farley added: “This is not our only truck. We said very clearly we want to be the leader in electric pickup trucks.”
The redesigned Ranger has been confirmed by Ford Europe to receive a plug-in hybrid variant by 2024, but Volkswagen has been making noise about the potential for an electric pickup truck.
2023 Ford Ranger 
2023 Volkswagen Amarok 
Its upcoming Amarok is based on the Ranger.
“We’re looking at a pure-electric version,” Lars Krause, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicle board member responsible for marketing, told Autocar.
“It’s still early, but it’s something we’re considering within the lifecycle.”
The Amarok’s (and ergo, the Ranger’s) body-on-frame architecture can accommodate an electric drivetrain and battery pack, according to Mr Krause.
“We think it’s possible. Obviously, we’d need to modify certain elements. But yes, we’re seriously considering an electric variant,” said Mr Krause.
Ford’s T6 chief platform engineer Ian Foston has confirmed the Ranger has been engineered for electrification.
“Platform lifecycle is anything up to 10 to 12 years. We said, well, clearly electrification is going to be something which we have to consider going forward,” Mr Foston said.
“So we made sure the platform was capable of it. And we engineered electrification into it, to make sure that all the different propulsion technologies would be able to fit within the platform going forward.”
MORE: Everything Ford Ranger
