The new Ford Ranger bakkie made its African debut on Tuesday at the Nampo Harvest Day in Bothaville, one of the largest agricultural shows in the southern hemisphere, several months ahead of its planned launch in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Ford SA president Jeffery Nemeth explained: "The new Ranger delivers outstanding on and off-road performance, combined with the hauling and towing capability our customers need, especially in the agricultural sector.
"The producers and the agriculture community are very important to us, so we built a Ranger specially for Nampo."
Ford's Silverton assembly plant is ramping up production of the new bakkie, which will be available by the end of 2011.
Nemeth went on: "The launch is on schedule; we're verifying our processes and working with our suppliers to make sure we deliver a high-quality, capable pickup truck.”
The company is investing R3 billion to upgrade and enlarge its Struandale engine plant and the Silverton assembly plant. Silverton will increase its annual capacity to 110 000 vehicles for the production of the Ranger and capacity at the Struandale plant, the global production hub for the Puma engine, will grow to 220 000 engines to produce Ford's new turbodiesel.
This investment, says Nemeth, will increase the Ranger's local content from 35 to 65 percent and spin off new supplier investment and new jobs in the component industry.