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With the current, tenth-generation Ford Ranger in its 11th year of production, we expect to meet the eleventh-generation 2023 Ranger before the year is out. The automaker has continued the teaser campaign with a video about developing and testing the new truck to be ready for the 180-plus markets where it will be sold. As explained by the pickup’s chief project engineer, John Willems, that has meant strapping prototypes to machines in a lab like a professional decathlete, then carting those prototypes all over the world to endure real-world scenarios in order to validate the computations.
There’s been hot-weather testing in Australia, the Middle East, and North America to prove the Ranger doesn’t faint from exhaustion, and cold-weather testing in New Zealand and North America to ensure parts don’t freeze up and that safety systems can get the pickup through snow-covered corners at speed. Ongoing durability tests at Ford’s Lara Proving Grounds in Australia complement findings from Rangers strapped 24 hours a day to the “squeak and rattle rig” at Ford’s R&D center in Geelong, Australia.
Ford says testing so far equals more than 775,000 miles of normal driving and nearly 390,000 miles of “rugged off-road durability testing” at the Ranger’s gross vehicle weight.
They’ll want to get it right, considering that a report in Ford Authority claims the coming Ranger will remain in production for eight years. Furthermore, what Ford’s doing with its mid-sized pickup will need to satisfy Volkswagen Amarok owners as well, since the Ranger’s T6 architecture is being shared with VW’s next-gen workhorse pickup.
Looks-wise, the next Ranger has been spotted in Thailand borrowing family looks from the larger F-150 and the smaller Maverick. We’ll get to look at that Ranger for a while yet, Ranger production for the U.S. market not expected to commence until May 2023 at Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant in preparation for an on-sale date in July 2023.
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