Ford Motor began production of the Ranger Raptor in Thailand at the beginning of July, with local deliveries set to start in August.
The Raptor, which was first unveiled in February this year, is a high-performance off-road version of the Ranger pickup truck, fitted with a two-litre, twin turbo diesel engine and with sporty body trim based on the company’s US-made F-150 pickup truck.
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The vehicle is produced at Ford’s Rayong plant in eastern Thailand run by its wholly-owned local subsidiary Ford Thailand Manufacturing (FTM).
Ford is looking to lift overall sales of the Ranger as it rolls out the Raptor variant worldwide later this year, with Australia and the Middle East key export destinations.
A spokesperson for Bangkok-based Ford ASEAN told local reporters “customer interest has been extraordinary and [orders] stronger than expected – many thousands in Thailand alone”.
Ford has two vehicle assembly plants in Thailand, including the AutoAlliance Thailand (AAT) joint venture with Mazda plus wholly-owned FTM.
Ford has half of the 270,000 units/year production capacity of AAT available to it plus all of the 180,000 at FTM.
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