The Ford Ranger was the leading locally-produced export vehicle in South Africa in September 2022, shipping 9,829 units to over 100 global markets.
Combined with a domestic sales figure of 1,604 units, the Ford bakkie’s purchase volumes reached a grand total of 11,433 vehicles last month.
These vehicles were all produced at Ford’s Silverton Assembly Plant in Pretoria, and form part of the final batches of current-generation Rangers that will be sent out of the country.
“It’s encouraging to see that global demand for the current Ranger remains high even during its run-out phase, and despite the challenges we have faced over the past two years,” said Dhiren Vanmali, Executive Sales Operations Director at Ford South Africa.
South Africa’s biggest exports
The massive 9,829 Rangers sent overseas last month means the Ford bakkie beat out the other highly-popular, locally-produced vehicles for the first time in a long while.
The evergreen VW Polo hatchback that is assembled in Kariega which usually ranks first now sits second, with a total of 9,656 units making their way to other regions – only 173 behind the Ranger.
BMW’s X3, too, which is produced at the Rosslyn Plant outside of Pretoria saw 7,014 examples find new international owners.
After this comes the country’s best-selling vehicle which is assembled outside of Durban at Toyota’s Prospecton factory, the Hilux, which moved 6,820 models resulting in this bakkie being by far the most-exported Toyota built in South Africa.
Mercedes-Benz then closes out the top-five local automotive exporters with 6,501 units of the C-Class, which is built in East London, climbing onto a cargo ship in September.
Plans for the future
In preparation for the launch of the next-generation Ranger, which is scheduled to go on sale in South Africa before the end of the year, Ford has invested a total of R15.8 billion into its Silverton Plant.
With all the upgrades to the facility, Silverton should now be capable of producing 200,000 units of both the new Ranger and next-gen VW Amarok per annum, said the carmaker.
Another R600 million was invested at the Struandale Engine Plant in Gqeberha, which will be responsible for building the 3.0-litre V6 engines that will power the new top-spec Ranger and Amarok models.
Thoroughly updated versions of the current 2.0-litre single and bi-turbo motors that are a mainstay of the Ranger series will also continue being produced at the facility.
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