America's Ford Ranger Raptor Will Get A Turbocharged Petrol V6
There were two main problems we found with the Ford Ranger Raptor when we drove it for the first time last year. One, we don’t know where you’d take it to make the most of its Baha-spec off-road toughness, and two, its underpowered diesel engine.
The latter seemed at odds with the bonkers nature of the rest of the package, but the good news is, Ford does have a solution up its sleeve. How useful it is to you depends entirely upon where you live.
Australian publication Car Advice reports that the next-gen USA-spec version of the Raptor will instead receive a 2.7-litre ‘Nano’ Ecoboost turbo V6. It develops 325bhp and 399lb ft of torque, compared to 210bhp and 369lb ft for the inline-four diesel. Much more like it.
Because a petrol V6 performance pick-up is unlikely to sell most places outside the USA, other territories have different plans. In Australia and much of Asia, for instance, the 2.0-litre diesel will be retained but sold alongside a 3.0-litre oil burner borrowed from the F-150.
It’ll be good for 255bhp and 443lb ft of torque, which - again - seems like more the ticket. Both the 3.0-litre and the 2.7 petrol V6 will be mated to a 10-speed automatic gearbox, mirroring the transmission of choice for the 2.0.
Both engines will arrive for the 2021 model year. As for what will be happening in Europe, meanwhile, we can’t be sure at this stage, but it seems likely the region will have to make do with the 2.0-litre for the foreseeable. Boo.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
“… it seems likely the region [Europe] will have to make do with the 2.0-litre for the foreseeable.”
Why? Could it be due to emissions?
probably partly to do with emissions, But in the UK it will be to do with tax and fuel costs, the MPG of turbo V6 petrol in a truck wont be very high so people will most likely not buy it, and in the UK we dont really have anywhere we can do Baja style off roading so that doesnt really effect peoples buying habits either. so just doesn’t make business sense to sell here with that engine.
Good decision. Us Europeans want our economical diesels, the Americans would puke if they saw a 2.0 4cyl engine in a pickup, so this is a good solution.
Such a shame Australia doesn’t really matter in the over all scheme of things. A decent performance engine in the Raptor would sell like hotcakes here, and there’s plenty of places to put that brilliant suspension to work. The Mustang 5.0 outsells the Ecoboost 10 to 1; the Stinger V6 outsells the 4 cyl 5 to 1; the V8 Ram is selling like mad even though it’s well over 100k; AMG sell the most cars capita here, making 20% of Mercedes sales. Spot a pattern?