Ford Ranger hits 1-million production milestone

Ford SA has celebrated a milestone with the millionth Ranger bakkie coming off the assembly line at the company’s Silverton factory in Tshwane.

The one-tonne bakkie has been assembled at the facility for 24 years over three generations and has become one of the country’s most popular vehicles.

Ford says a million Rangers lined up bumper to bumper would reach from Pretoria to Egypt’s southern border 5,300km away. The vehicle has helped elevate SA’s automotive industry onto the global stage and is exported to more than 100 countries.

“It’s fitting that we celebrate reaching and now rapidly surpassing the one-millionth locally produced Ranger during Ford’s centenary year in SA,” said Ford Motor Company Africa president Neale Hill.

“Production of the first-generation Ranger started in 2000, which coincided with the official return of Ford Motor Company to SA. Ford has invested extensively in its Silverton plant and the Struandale engine plant in Gqeberha to expand Ranger production for the SA market and to support exports to more than 100 global markets.”

At Ford’s local centenary event last year the company announced a R5.2bn investment to build the Ranger plug-in hybrid in Silverton. Ford has spent R35bn on its SA operations since 2011, when the Silverton plant switched exclusively to Ranger production. Late in 2022, the company finished spending R15.8bn on introducing the new generation of petrol and diesel internal combustion engine Rangers.

The first-generation Ranger was produced in Silverton between 2000 and 2011. It included Ford SA’s first significant foray into export markets, which started in 2008 with right-hand drive and left-hand drive models shipped to markets in Africa. Production ended in late 2011 with more than 100,000 Rangers manufactured in what had been a multiplatform assembly facility producing passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.

Production of the second-generation Ranger started in 2011 with a global export programme at its core and an initial installed capacity of 110,000 vehicles per year. The new model led to investments in the Struandale engine plant for the component machining and assembly of the 2.2l and 3.2l Duratorq TDCi engines.

Multiple evolutions of this model range followed over the years, including further advances in technology, safety and refinement. It included the 2019 addition of the 2l single turbo and biturbo diesel engines and the arrival of the rally-bred Ranger Raptor. The bakkie regularly achieved top-selling status in SA.

The second-generation Ranger chapter drew to a close in November 2022 with 873,751 units produced in SA — about two-thirds of which were exported.

The launch of the third-generation Ranger at the end of 2022 followed an expansion programme at the Silverton plant to increase installed capacity to 200,000 vehicles per year — or 720 vehicles per day — the highest volume of any vehicle manufacturer in the country.

Ford built a chassis plant in the newly developed Tshwane Automotive Special Economic Zone adjacent to the Silverton plant. The zone is a public-private partnership between Ford and national, provincial and local government that houses 11 component suppliers providing parts to the Ranger assembly line.

Ford employs about 5,200 people and supports about 60,000 jobs in the value chain.

The new Ranger, the country’s best-selling double cab, was the 2023 SA Car of the Year, becoming the first bakkie to win the award.