Aluminum, the Ford Ranger killer

[Bob Of Burleson]

2015 Ford F-150 aluminum kills hope
for new Ranger to fight Chevy Colorado

By John Goreham
TorqueNews.com

There are three main reasons why a new Ford Ranger will not be created any time soon by Ford.

The new 2015 Ford F-150 breaks new ground for the truck market in many ways besides the big news of its aluminum shiny parts. The truck will also have a lighter, stronger frame. It will have a new EcoBoost engine that is not meant to replace the larger V8s of competitors, but rather, to fill the gap just below that level of grunt. The truck also has cool new technology in the cargo bed, lighting, and many other areas. This is great news for full size truck lovers, and conversely, terrible news for Ford fans hoping for a new Ranger compact pickup truck.

Just as Chevy and GMC are launching 2015 Colorado and Canyon compact trucks to take back the market from Toyota’s Tacoma, the folks at Ford are now in a position of moving away from compact trucks for three main reasons.

Aluminum Would Not Work in a Ranger

The first theory I offer is critical to the rest of this argument. That is that a Ranger would not make economic sense right now for Ford. Later maybe, but for the coming five years or so the whole world is going to need to adjust to the fact that Ford is going to use a tremendous amount of aluminum for the 2015 F-150. This is not my idea. I heard the chief engineer for the F-150, Pete Reyes say those words. He specifically said that when Ford met with the worlds’ aluminum producers it was clear that there was not enough capacity– on Earth – to meet the demand. Trying to squeeze more blood from that stone to make a small truck is not in the cards right now.

The Fuel Economy of the 2015 F-150 Would Top Ranger’s

Given the reality that an aluminum Ranger will not work, a new steel Ranger could weigh close to the same as the 2015 F-150’s smaller versions. The main reason for a smaller truck is affordability. Although some do like smaller trucks, there is no business case for them if they are not more fuel efficient by a substantial margin when compared to their siblings on the showroom floor. Sure Ford could make a hybrid or some other un-sellable version to post good fuel economy, but Ford has not done anything that dumb in a long time. Fuel economy is the main reason a new Ranger makes little sense.

CAFE Advantages Lost on Ranger

Tied to the aluminum and fuel economy issue is the reality that a Ranger built mainly for a size would not help the Ford Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) and might actually hurt Ford’s overall rating. Scores are like reading tea leaves, but we do know they are tied to size and wheelbase. A Ranger that does not add to Ford’s CAFE score is never going to happen.

- See more at: http://www.torquenews.com/1083/2015-for ... IahwR.dpuf

[bodine]

Alcoa shut down their Rockdale production facility a couple of years back; maybe Ford should have told them they were going to start producing aluminum trucks?

[Dancer]

Cashing in beer cans could pay better in the future.