Ford Ranger wins the battle of the utes

The Ford Ranger was the top-selling new vehicle in Australia for the first time ever last year, according to industry sales figures released this week, ending the seven-year reign of the Toyota HiLux.

The Blue Oval brand’s Australian-developed ute racked up a phenomenal 63,356 sales in 2023, placing it 2245 units clear of its arch-rival from the red corner, which managed 61,111 deliveries.

That marked a 33 per cent increase in Ranger sales over 2022, when the changeover to the new-generation model kept it to 47,479 units – well behind HiLux, which produced a record-breaking 64,391 sales that year and basked in the glory of achieving the highest sales tally for a single model from any brand since 2005, when the Aussie-built Holden Commodore reigned supreme.

Now, the tables have turned, and although Ranger fell just short of HiLux’s 2022 result, it, too, can lay claim to an historic high-water mark as Ford has not topped the bestsellers’ list for an achingly long 28 years.

Sales of both Ranger and HiLux were impeded last year by production and shipping delays, but Ford Australia said today that the company’s move to charter its own container ship between the factory in Thailand and Australian ports proved decisive.

“With sustained high demand, and to overcome an industry-wide backlog due to port congestion, in 2023 Ford Australia took the extraordinary step of signing an exclusive deal to charter Grand Quest, a ship dedicated to transporting both Ranger and Everest from the factory in Thailand to Australia and New Zealand,” the company said in a press release.

“This enabled the company to deliver thousands of Rangers to customers across the country.”

Ford Australia president and CEO, Andrew Birkic, also highlighted the role played by the local engineering and design team, and thanked the brand’s dealers and customers for their strong support.

“There are so many people who play a role in the success of a vehicle,” he said.

“For Ranger, that’s our team of designers, engineers and everyone at Ford who pours their passion into making the vehicle what it is, our dealers who are passionate about serving their customers and communities, and ultimately our Ranger customers whose passion for their vehicle is what gets us up in the morning.”

Of course, Toyota was far from disgraced, and while company executives and brand loyalists will be bitterly disappointed at having lost their bragging rights, the HiLux’s result – down five per cent compared to 2022 – was still the ute’s second-highest on record.

With sustained high demand, and to overcome an industry-wide backlog due to port congestion, in 2023 Ford Australia took the extraordinary step of signing an exclusive deal to charter Grand Quest, a ship dedicated to transporting both Ranger and Everest from the factory in Thailand to Australia and New Zealand. This enabled the company to deliver thousands of Rangers to customers across the country.