Clean Car’s impact on high-energy petrol V6 has forced Ford NZ to come up with softer ‘what if’ contingencies.

A LESS STIRRING edition of the turbo petrol V6 or a return to diesel could be in store for the Raptor should its hugely muscled launch powerplant prove too hot for our market to handle.

Ford New Zealand boss Simon Rutherford (above) says he is having to consider those as future potentials simply as matter of necessity and good sense to meet Government’s toughening emissions criteria.

No decisions have been made but availability of all has been evaluated.

Speaking in Australia, at a venue near Brisbane where media get to drive the new Raptor, he assured that for now all bets are on the flagship as it is soon to hit New Zealand, with a 292kW/583Nm mill from Ford North America, in full knowledge that this engine is eagerly sought by Kiwi customers.

The forward order book for the specialist performance version with its F-150 powerplant is bulging, with 550 sign-ups so far and more expected.

However, while selling on strength of being the most potent engine ever to go into a Ranger, the petrol six also comes with issues.

All well as being the thirstiest powerplant chosen for a Ranger – with a cited economy of 11.5 litres per 100km – it is also the most polluting, with an emissions count of 292 grams per kilometre CO2.

That’s significantly more than any other engine provisioned to NZ’s one-tonne favourite and makes it such a juicy target under installed and pending Clean Car regulation that Ford is planning ‘what if’ scenarios.

One being mulled is to keep the engine, but as it provisions in the United Kingdom, detuned to 211kW and 490Nm. That version is cleaner and more economical.

Alternately, there is potential new Raptor could go back to diesel, his thought being either the 3.0-litre single turbo diesel that goes into Ranger Wildtrak and Sport, making 184kW and 600Nm in those models, or a return to previous Raptor’s 2.0-litre biturbo.

Creating 29kW and 100Nm less than the compression ignition V6, the four-cylinder already installs in new Raptor for sale in Thailand, where it is built, and seems a more solid bet, even though a reason why the new model has upgraded to a far gruntier choice now is as result of customer thought the four-cylinder oiler just wasn’t gutsy enough.

The Ford Australia engineers who developed Raptor are surprised to hear the diesel V6 is under consideration. They are adamant their vehicle has never been developed with consideration for the powerfu diesel, which has been used by Land Rover and Jaguar in even more potent form - including with two turbos - than Ford has chosen.

Rutherford says if those prove to be options that have to be explored, he could not pick one over the other.

“The biturbo (2.0-litre) is still very strong for us in terms of where it performs and that is where the majority of the volume will be (with Ranger in general).”

However it goes, Ford NZ is aware of the emergent sensitivity around CO2, and the price they have to pay for having a high emissions vehicle.

From day one of NZ sale, Raptor is hefting a maximum emissions penalty of $5175 on top of its pack leader $89,990 tag.

It will be hit harder still under the Clean Car Standard, which implements on January 1 and aims at distributors, with brands expected to meet fleet average targets or suffer penalties.

The span of these has only recently been outlined and are still being studied by Ford, but there’s thought it might mean every Raptor sold here in 2025 will cop a penalty of $10,000.

Rutherford cannot yet say how much more a Raptor will cost from the start of 2023, but says it is highly likely the launch price will rise to offset the Standard.

“Potentially there will be an increase related to it … unfortunately that’s the reality.

“Really it’s a book balancing exercise. We need to make sure that we achieve our (CO2) compliance, which we are aiming to do.”

There is no intent to drop Raptor. “We would love to keep it. We know customers want it.”

Raptor and the Ford Mustang V8, which will debut internationally in a new generation next week and likely be on sale here this time next year, will likely be the highest CO2 emitters in Ford’s passenger line.

It’s possible Raptor and Mustang availability might become more controlled, to keep a cap on volumes.

On strength of the pre-release demand, Raptor is coming into NZ accounting for 15 percent of overall Ranger volume, but he expects that to dial back. If not, Ford might have to influence that by cutting back on supply.

“We don’t want to be completely cynical about it, we want to be completely honest, but the reality is that those risks lay with us under the scheme.”

The plan is to have enough low CO2 cars which offset the dirty ones. Those in the clean club run from plug-in hybrid Escape up to another Mustang, the fully electric Mach-E, which will be on sale from early to mid 2023.

Ford NZ announced today that it intends to have three Mach-E models here; a rear-drive entry car with a 75.7kWh battery capable of 440 kilometres’ range and two all-wheel-drives, with a 98.7kWh battery, one good for 500kms and other for 540kms.

Pricing will be announced on October 1 but Rutherford says he would be silly not to have a Mach-E sited beneath $80,000, the cut-off for Government’s juicy electric car rebate.