Ranger’s under-skin twin being very much a joint project raises potential - and local VW commercials boss is keen.

“THIS is quite an exciting development … we love the idea and would be keen to bring it in it is to be made available to us.”

As the chance of the plug-in hybrid drivetrain announced for Ford Ranger also coming to its under skin twin, the Volkswagen Amarok?

Kevin Richards, who as head of commercials for Volkswagen New Zealand has the utility in his portfolio, says nothing has been clearly signalled by company headquarters.

However, he points out the programme that produces these conjoined models is emphatically a joint venture.

Further, in respect to drivetrains and technology, to date everything that goes into the Ford also lends to the Amarok - including, even though it doesn’t sell in a NZ-specification Ranger, the 2.3-litre turbo petrol that will be the basis of the electrified engine.

On top of all that, some very big hints were dropped back at Amarok’s global release, in South Africa at the end of last year.

Within hours of Ford Australia making public on Tuesday evening its intent to have a mains-replenished Ranger on sale in New Zealand by early 2025, Richards (below) was on the phone to Germany to a handle on where Wolfsburg stands.

No firm answers came from that, but no-one seems to be saying it isn’t a potential, either.

“What we don’t have is any concrete information from the factory about ‘if, how and when’.”

Ford’s making public its commitment merely confirmed a lot of behind-the-scenes chatter on the VW side.

“We’d heard a PHEV drivetrain was the most likely alternative that we could be looking at as part of the partnership.

“I’m personally a big PHEV fan, particularly for commercial vehicles. I think it gives the best of both worlds.”

At the global Amarok launch, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles global product manager Peter Sulc went on record saying that while Germany would ultimately like a fully electric Amarok, it was also working on more immediate electrification plans with Ford. In short: A PHEV.

One impetus is the incoming, highly string Euro 7 emissions standard. Diesel engines will struggle to meet that. A PHEV might not.

“If you look to the engines we currently have, and then see the draft of Euro 7 (emission standards), you see the requirements for diesel are much higher than requirement for petrol,” Sulc told an online publication, Australia’s CarExpert.

“… So technically, technically, it’s easy to bring PHEV for petrol engines.”

Intriguingly, Ford Australia when going public on Ranger PHEV would not clarify where that derivative will be built.

If it doesn’t come out of Thailand, alongside all other NZ-bound Ranger types, the next most logical sourcing point is the Silverton plant in South Africa, which in addition to provisioning NZ-sourced Amarok is also making Ranger for Europe. There’s logic to producing PHEV versions of both from a common line. 

Volkswagen, like Ford, is now deeply immersed in electrification of its product lines. 

Amarok already represents the Ford made (it’s ex-Mustang and Focus ST) turbocharged 2.3-litre turbocharged petrol four cylinder that is the basis of the PHEV programme - albeit as a ‘taster’ product, with just 20 examples ordered. 

Richards says there has been customer interest in that engine in its 222kW/452Nm form. 

Ford has not said how much more grunt it will developed with the electric involvement, but has stated it will have the most torque of any Ranger engine, a status presently held by the 600Nm V6 turbodiesel that is presently the primary choice for Amarok fans.

Amarok PHEV would be good for the NZ audience, Richards says.

He’s sure it would offer plenty of opportunity even if Ford got first dibs in the market place, which would seem probable as the Blue Oval was, in releasing pure ICE Rangers last June, almost a year ahead of Amarok in the same formats being available. 

“I would imagine that might also happen again. But we would be working as hard as we can with the factory to get it into the country …. providing it is part of our partnership agreement.

“That’s what we don’t know yet.”