The million Ford Ranger has been produced. Image: Ford
Having celebrated 100 years of South African production last year, Ford Motor Company Africa, on Tuesday (4 June), confirmed it had assembled the millionth Ranger as its Silverton Plant outside Pretoria.
Produced since 2000 when it replaced the Courier, the millionth Ranger, a silver Platinum, left the facility just over 11 years after a previous generation T6 became the three millionth Ford vehicle to be manufactured by the Blue Oval since its arrival in South Africa in 1923.
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While still based on the same platform as former long-time partner Mazda’s B-Series, a total of 105 950 original Rangers departed Silverton between 2000 and 2011, before being replaced by the Ford developed T6 in 2012.
The model that provided the base for the Mazda BT-50 in a reverse role until Hiroshima’s split from the Blue Oval in 2015, the T6 lived on for 11 years until being replaced by the current T6.2 after combined domestic and export numbers of 873 751 units.
One of the biggest projects at Silverton that saw an investment of R15.8-billion in 2021, a record for South Africa’s automotive industry, current capacity stands at 200 000 vehicles per year or 720 a day.
Besides being the sole facility to also produce the new Volkswagen Amarok as part of Dearborn’s joint venture with Wolfsburg, Silverton will soon start producing the plug-in hybrid Ranger as part of another exclusive agreement worth a further R5.2-billion.
In addition to Silverton, a total of R600-million flowed into the Struandale Engine Plant in Gqeberha in 2021 for the manufacturing of both the 2.0-litre single and bi-turbo Panther, as well as the 3.0-litre Lion turbodiesel V6 engines that power the Ranger.
Before that, the facility had been producing the 2.2 and 3.2-litre Puma engines used in the T6 Ranger, which both remain in production today, albeit in a smaller capacity and for industrial rather than commercial vehicle usage.
“Production of the first-generation Ranger commenced in 2000, which coincided with the official return of Ford Motor Company to South Africa. Both of these events were defining moments in the brand’s local history, and set the tone for Ford’s firm commitment to the country,” Ford Motor Company Africa President Neale Hill said in a statement.
“We have continued to invest extensively in our local operations at the Silverton Manufacturing Plant and the Struandale Engine Plant to expand Ranger production for the South African market, and to support crucial exports to more than 100 global markets.
“At our centenary event last year, we were delighted to announce a further investment for the exciting new Ranger plug-in hybrid as the latest chapter in this remarkable story. This reinforces the significance of our local operations and the contribution of our South African team in the global success of the Ranger program”.
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