Can Ford’s first hybrid pick-up truck stop the march of Chinese carmakers?
For now, if you want to buy a ute, the only sensible choice is the Ford Ranger. But this is a truck on borrowed time. The Chinese are coming and they’re not messing about.
For reasons I don’t understand, my farming show is not officially available in China. But that doesn’t stop them watching it, and in vast numbers it seems, because on any given day a significant number of people who come to our Diddly Squat farm shop are Chinese.
It’s weird because in the western world, farming is farming. It doesn’t matter whether you’re French, Australian or Hungarian, you have the same two basic problems: the weather and the government. But in China it’s different. Land ownership is impossible, so everyone is a tenant and they have a rice-based diet. Our crops, then, are as meaningless to them as their love of the gizzard is to us.
So why are they watching? It’s a question I put to one recent Chinese visitor to the farm shop. His answer was tremendous: “It’s because we cannot believe how incompetent you are.” Over there, they are bombarded with stories of successful people doing things well, so it makes a nice change to see a fat man f. king everything up.
That said, though, we recently hosted a Chinese agricultural delegation on a fact-finding mission in the UK. So plainly the high-ups are interested in what we’re up to. Very interested in fact. I showed them one of our hen houses, which may look like a miniature Romany caravan but inside it’s all quite high-tech.
Every Brit that’s seen it says, “Oh, that’s cute,” and then wants to go to the pub. But not our Chinese friends. They took photos of the door hinges, the solar set-up, the roosting bars. Everything. And I just know that by the middle of next week, copies will be rolling down the production line at the People’s Hen House Factory No 7.
I admire the Chinese. I first went there in 1984 and it was like I’d arrived in the Middle Ages. I went on a sooty, rattly steam train from Beijing to Zhengzhou and the lavatory was one of the carriages with a hole in the floor. Everyone had missed it. But their trains now, just 40 years later, make the French TGV look like something George Stephenson would describe as “a bit old-fashioned”.
And then we have their cars. As recently as 20 years ago they had three wheels and a seat that fell over whenever you accelerated. Whereas today there’s a carmaker called BYD – revoltingly, it stands for Build Your Dreams – that sold more than 35,000 cars in the UK in the first nine months of this year. That’s more than Mini, Honda, Fiat, Mazda, Seat and many more of the established companies.
And it’s not just in the budget arena where they are dominating. Because a BYD called the Yangwang U9 recently set a new speed record for road cars: a scarcely believable 496km/h. So. They came. They saw. They copied. And now they’re conquering.
Their next target, I’m told, is the pick-up truck market, and that should be easy pickings for one simple reason. With pick-ups, the only things that matter are running costs and practicality. Does a farmer or a forester care where it’s from, or whether the company that made it once won a grand prix at Pau? No, he does not. So if he’s offered a Chinese truck that’s cheaper to run and more practical than any of the others, he’ll buy it. I know this because I’ve just bought a Chinese-made buggy. A CFMoto, if you’re interested.
For now, though, if you want a pick-up truck in Britain, the only sensible choice is the Ford Ranger. I’ve been trying out a new version that Ford hopes will stop the Chinese in their tracks. At first, I didn’t think I’d be able to write a review because I couldn’t make the damn thing move. I climbed in, pressed the starter button – and instead of a noise from under the bonnet, all I got was a message on the dash asking some damn fool health-and-safety-related question. I couldn’t find any way of answering, so I gave up and used my Range Rover instead.
After three days, though, curiosity got the better of me, so I tried again and realised why there was no noise. It’s a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), the first of its kind in Europe. So I set off and after a while the health-and-safety question disappeared.
So what’s it like? To cover the unimportant stuff first, it’s surprisingly car-like to drive, very quiet, has turn-on-and-offable four-wheel drive, rides nicely and the interior is well equipped and nicely appointed. The leather, for instance, has contrasting stitching. So while you may be loading logs, you’ll feel like you’re at Paris Fashion Week. Oh, and you can turn the speed-limit bonger off in well under 15 minutes, so that’s good as well.
Right. Now let’s get serious. Normally, a plug-in hybrid would cause me to fall into a deep sleep. I’m bored stiff hearing about all the advantages of this technology in a car. There aren’t any.
However, a pick-up truck is not a car. It’s a tool, and as a tool the PHEV makes sense. You get 30km or so of electric range, enough for the average day at Diddly Squat, and then you only need to plug it in to charge it up again. Or you can use the 2.3-litre engine to do that.
Then, in the load bay, there are two 13-amp sockets, which means you can use the battery pack as a silent generator if you want to use some kind of electric power tool. This would be very useful if, say, you wished to suck some blackberries off a roadside bush using a vacuum cleaner.
On the downside, the load bed has been raised to accommodate the battery pack. So you are losing practicality over the normal version. Interestingly, there’s no difference in the weight of the trailer both are allowed to tow. Thanks to its batteries, the PHEV’s gross weight is 150kg more than the standard truck, yet it retains its ability to lug 3.5 tonnes around.
All things considered, I liked this truck. So did my dogs. And so did Kaleb, my farm manager. It felt as if it had been carefully thought out by people who actually do manly stuff in the mud all day. It even has a step cut into the bodywork so the shorter gentleman can reach in the back more easily. And it’s well priced, but the trouble is you can make a pick-up truck in China for less. Yes, Ford has won Le Mans and BYD hasn’t (yet). But farmers don’t care about that, I’m afraid.
FORD RANGER WILDTRAK PHEV
ENGINE: 2.3-litre, four-cylinder petrol, plus electric motor
PERFORMANCE: 0-100km/h 9.2sec, top speed 170km/h
PRICE:From $74,954
JEREMY’S RATING:4/5
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