Old-era diesel will be an understudy to the high performance but high cost petrol V6.

‘POPULAR demand’ is being cited as the reason why a biturbo 2.0-litre diesel has reintroduced to Ranger Raptor - but inability to provision the speed demon flagship with the V6 oiler also popular in Ford’s ute also comes into it.

There’s also concession comeback for the 2.0-litre, a powerplant dropped for being a bit too wussy, is fuelled ny need to alleviate the huge Clean Car hit the model’s superstar petrol 292kW V6 is taking.

In an announcement timed to today’s opening of the national fieldays at Mystery Creek, near Hamilton, the Auckland-based distributor enforces it will continue selling Raptor with the V6, the most powerful engine in a one-tonne ute sold here.

Ford has previously testified that despite the petrol-loving twin turbocharged six-cylinder drawing thousands of dollars of emissions tax impost at two levels - from the soon-to-increase Clean Car Discount that effects on purchase and a more injurious Clean Car Standard that hits at distributor level - on strength of its big drinking, high emissions attitude, it has been hugely popular.

Only supply limitation has kept it back to accounting for four percent of total volume for Ranger, which consistently sits as country’s the top-selling vehicle.

The diesel Raptor will avail from October for $86,490 - a $9500 drop on the V6 edition, which it otherwise almost wholly replicates in specification, including with a full-time four wheel-drive system in marriage to a 10-speed automatic.

The Raptor V6 seems set to become a $100,000-in-ownership choice once CCD penalties climb, on July 1; perhaps even more if Ford transfers its CCS pain to retail level.

Ford retired the biturbo diesel from the high-performance flagship as part of last year’s range revitalisation to a new generation of Ranger but kept it in the latest-era XLT, Sport and Wildtrak, double cab editions, with the latter two also offering a diesel V6.

From October, though, Ranger Sport will retreat to just 2.0-litre diesel form.

While the 2.0-litre diesel has patent economy and emissions advantage, with 154kW and 500Nm the first gen Raptor (above) eats dust to the walloping 292kW/583Nm petrol kingpin.

Power-to-weight differences are massive - the diesel generates 67.6kW per tonne, whereas the Ford America-supplied six outputs 120.6kW.

Conceivably, the better alternate would have been Ranger’s other new V6, the single turbo diesel type, that with 184kW and 600Nm presents 78.8kW per tonne.

However, Ford engineers at the Raptor’s regional launch in Australia last September said they had never considered the diesel V6. They made clear engineering it in now would be a stiff challenge. A Ford NZ spokesman today said he understood that it still the case.

While latest Raptor has provisioned with the biturbo diesel in Thailand, it’s mainly for tax reasons. The development team said signing on the petrol V6 was their first decision when the programme got under way, three years ago; Raptor was thereafter designed and kitted to cope with its stupendous punch.

They believed the monster mill’s performance potential would counter its bad habits; a requirement for 98 octane for the full power experience and wallet-emptying thirst.

Ford’s testing of it being good for an overall 11.5 litres per 100km optimal - by total coincidence the same economy claimed for the previous turbo six engineering programme boss Dave Burn was involved with, the Falcon XR6 Turbo - has proven forlorn in real life. The example on recent test with MotoringNZ slurped at 14.4L/km as an overall average from a week’s use, when it was replenished twice. During an off-road stretch, it drank more deeply.

Just to remind, the previous diesel Raptor sat at 8.1L/100km and the current Wildtrak biturbo is good for 8.4L/100km. An official fuel burn figure for new Raptor diesel is yet to be shared, but might be higher than Wildtrak, given the differences in drivetrain settings and the tyre choices.

Emissions have become Raptor V6’s bigger issue in NZ. No Ranger escapes a Clean Car penalty for exhaust nasties, but V6 Raptor is the class bad boy with 292g/km under the WLTP-3 protocol NZ now prioritises.

A diesel V6 Ranger makes 254g and the 2.0-litre biturbo emits 218g, however it appears Raptor will take a version requiring AdBlue additive that has otherwise only shown in the limited-edition Wildtrak X. This one seems to have a 209g output.

At the Raptor’s launch in Brisbane, Ford NZ boss Simon Rutherford (above) inquired about potential of taking Raptor V6 in a Europe-market specification, which tailors to meet the Euro 6 emissions standard, a step higher than the Euro 5 requirement the NZ-market type meets.

However, it was made clear the Euro 6 edition was no solution.

Power and torque dropped considerably, to 214kW and 490Nm, and emissions actually increased, to 315g/km when measured to the higher standard. Also, the Euro 6 Raptor was more expensive to build.

Today Ford NZ marketing manager David Herbert said Raptor V6 had set new benchmarks as the only factory-built performance truck for high-speed off-roading and acknowledged it was “much sought after.”

He also said many customers had been asking for the biturbo diesel’s return.

“We are responding … to offer another option for Raptor customers and off-roading enthusiasts.

“Also with the Clean Car Scheme at the top of many minds, Ford’s biturbo diesel is an excellent option to avoid the higher fees. It remains one of the cleanest yet most capable powertrains available in New Zealand.”

This was reiterated by Ford NZ communications manager Tom Clancy. “We wouldn’t bring it in if people weren’t asking for it. There are enough people asking for it.”

Other changes will see introduction of a rear-drive choice or Ranger Sport and XL models will achieve a towbar and integrated brake controller.

Meantime, Ford is using Fieldays to display Wildtrak X and the Ranger Platinum, a new V6 diesel variant announced earlier this year.