Ford Ranger Hybrid review 2026 Australia – PHEV Stormtrak dual cab ute (inc EV range test)
This is the plug-in hybrid version of the Ford Ranger ute, and it does things differently to the other options in this part of the market. It has far less EV driving range and a much higher price tag. So, does it justify its cost? Well, I’ll tell you what I reckon in this review, the best alternatives, too, and much, much more. So, let’s get to it. Thanks for watching and thanks for subscribing. The Ford Ranger plug-in hybrid lineup has four different variants available, and all of them are more expensive than the Chinese alternatives, which I’ll tell you about in the next section of this video. But let’s talk about what is on offer and what this vehicle costs. So, the entry- level version is called the XLT. And just like the regular XLT models, it does come with things like H hallogen lights and cloth seats and manual seat adjustment. But you do get a decent size screen on the inside. But at $71,000 before on-road costs, it is pricey. Spend 4 grand more and you’ll get yourself into the sport grade, which will get you a few better features like LED headlights. You’ll also get some different styling on the outside, 18-in alloy wheels as opposed to 17s. Get heated front seats, a wireless phone charger, and pop out cup holders, which you don’t get in the XLT. And then up from there is the Wild Track version, which pushes the price even higher, 80,000 before onroads. It gets the Wild Track specific design with different 18-in wheels. It gets roof rails, aluminium tie down rails in the tray. You’ve got a power operated roller shutter. There’s ambient interior lighting, a 10- speakeraker sound system from Bang & Olivesson and leather upholstery with Wild Track embossing and a 360 degree camera as standard, plus the Protra backup assist, which makes reversing big trailers a lot easier. And then there’s this one here, which is called Storm Track, and it is available in this interesting chill gray finish, which my MS reckons looks like the sort of color you’d paint your bathroom. Our bathroom is a very similar color to this. Uh, but there’s also black if you want it in black instead. Now, this high-grade version does add some extra features. It gets specific design elements around the body of the vehicle, including different looking wheels, and you’re also getting that interesting design trim on the inside, too. It gets a few little slight differences on the inside, too. But I’ll talk you through the interior in a couple of sections time. But first, I want to talk about some alternatives to this Ranger plug-in hybrid. There’s some that I think make a lot more sense for the money. Look, if someone said to me right now, you’ve got to go and buy a plug-in hybrid pickup truck. Well, it wouldn’t be this. It would be the BYD Shark. I’m just being honest with you guys because I don’t need 3 and 1/2 ton towing, and I need more EV driving range than this vehicle offers me. The plug-in hybrid BYD Shark has 100ks of EV driving capability. It doesn’t have three and a half ton towing. I don’t think that really matters for the majority of people and it maybe isn’t as off-road capable or as hardcore as some of the others out there, but for families who are looking for a lifestyle ute, it could be a fantastic choice cuz it comes really well equipped and it’s bloody affordable compared to this sub60k. Wow, you’re getting a lot of pickup truck for your cash. If you do want a bigger vehicle with more off-road capability and 3/2 ton towing, well, the GWM Canon Alpha could be a great choice. I think it stacks up pretty well. It is a very affordable vehicle compared to this again with heaps of standard equipment and it has a bigger body as well. Lots of tray space and that Canon Alpha could be a really good choice for someone who does need 3 and 1/2 ton towing and serious off-road capability cuz well, you’re getting all that and more stuff for less money. So, it could be the best choice that you can make if those are your priorities. But what would you do? I’d love to know your thoughts. Let’s have you say in the comments section below. Would it be a plug-in hybrid ute for you or would you just go for a diesel? Cuz there’s lots of really, really good diesels out there. Nothing’s changed in terms of the dimensions of the Ford Ranger dual cab pickup truck. And that is exclusively what you can have the plug-in hybrid as. There is no cab chassis version available. And you will need to see what the warranty documentation says about trying to convert it to be a cab chassis because well, I’ve seen some reports that suggest that you won’t be able to do that without voiding your warranty. So, that might rule it out for you. Some of the others out there do allow you to set it up as a cab chassis with plug-in hybrid tech. Uh, but maybe there’s a cab chassis version coming later on. Now, I want to show you some really cool features of this Storm Track version. Let me hop up here and show you this. So you’ve got some pop out racking. So you can slide that one across over to that side. The other one pops over to here and then you’ll have roof racks and they are integrated into the bars. So that is a neat piece of design. And there’s another little rack system here which you can pop up if you want to. But you might be thinking, well, what’s the point of that? That’s just a bit of a strange place to put it. But the point of it is that you’ve got this. Look at this. can slide this rack system back so you can have a much more practical ute that just has the sport bar look but has an actual practicality element to it if that’s what you want. So you could put surfboards on top, you could put ladders on top or I don’t know, whatever you really want that’s long. I guess you could put it on top. Uh that’s pretty nifty, I got to say. I’ll tell you about the plug points there in a sec. And at the back, well, nothing’s really changed. Uh let’s have a look in the tub. And does have a nice softish opening element to it. You’ve got clamp points in this particular version. And you’ve got a electronic roller cover. There’s a button right here to open it up. Uh but I want to call out one thing. First and foremost, let’s have a look. Yep, there’s a lump in the tray. Uh and that’s because of the battery pack being positioned underneath the tray. So there’s a bit of a rise in the loadin zone. So that’s not unfamiliar in uh the electrified ute space, but it might be something that could be an issue if you do forklift things in for instance. Now I’ll put all the tub dimensions on your screen now so you can see for yourself how much space you’ve got to play with. Yes, you can fit a pallet between those arches, which is good to see. There’s some pretty good tie down options, too. So you’ve got a racking system up the top to adjust those cleats, so you can basically make it more usable for your needs. Obviously the ones with the power roller shutter do have a bit of an ingress into the load space. And on this side you’ll see you’ve also got a Pro Power onboard power outlet setup. So here you’ve got two 15 amp plugs each putting out up to 3.45 kW. That means 6.9 kW draw is possible from the battery pack. And that means that well, you’ll be able to power some tools or power your campsite and make everybody happy with some loud music because that’s what Ford Ranger owners do apparently at campsites. Anyway, uh now let’s have a look under here and see what we’re working with. This particular version gets a full size alloy spare wheel. Some of the other versions come as standard with just a tire repair kit, but you can option a spare if you wish. So, yeah, some considerations there, I would say. Now, let’s take a look inside and see what it’s like. Right up, people. I’m not going to do a massive rundown on every single element of this interior because it hasn’t changed all that much, quite frankly. And that’s no bad thing because I still think that the Rangers interior is one of the best in the segment, and so are most of the controls in here. Let me say that some of the other plug-in hybrid utes and even some of the other diesel utes have some pretty frustrating controls. This car doesn’t. It’s got uh buttons and knobs and dials as you would hope. So, you’ve got a section of buttons and knobs and dials down here for fan control, volume, climate control, and look, that’s all mirrored on the screen there if you want it. But hey, um that’s just so much easier, especially if you’re wearing gloves or something like that. Uh it does make a big difference. And same with some of the steering wheel controls, like this one right here. You press that twice and it will turn off your lane keeper assist. There’s no mucking around going through the screen to turn that off. Uh, look, I do think that it is a very easy to get to learn cabin with easy tolearn controls on the steering wheel as I said. So, you’ve got blinkers where they should be. You’ve got some media controls there. You’ve got wipers on that side and your cruise controls and volume stuff there. And then you’ve got this touchcreen media system. Look, I will do a little bit of info on it because there are some differences. If you go up here, you’ll see that you’ve got your pro power onboard settings that you can adjust. That is obviously a big consideration for this vehicle. You’ve got a generator mode, so you can basically turn on the engine for the car and keep it running. So, it will keep everything powered up that is plugged in there. That’s pretty nifty. And over here, you’ll see you’ve also got some charging considerations that you can see. Yes, I’ve run it out of juice on purpose, and I’ll tell you about that in the driving section. But you can adjust elements like your departure time and what you would like the car to be like. So, if you know that you go to work Monday to Friday and you want to charge it up overnight and you want to make sure that the car is warm in the morning, you can do all that. That’s really, really handy tech. I like that about this. And you can also see where some local charging spots are if you want to. Now, if you do want to just quickly look at other menus, you can do that by hitting that button there. You do have satnav if you want to use it, or you can use Apple CarPlay and Android Auto wirelessly, which is really quite handy. All the icons here are very easy to get your head around. I like this design. I think this is probably the benchmark in terms of usability for a big screen in a pickup truck like this. Uh, but let’s talk about some of the other elements in cabin here. So, you got some nice features here. You got a wireless phone charger. There’s a little tray here, and I want to show you what it has at the bottom. Yep, chips. That’s where you put your chips, people, in case you’re wondering. Uh, and there’s some other little icons around the cab. So, you can see you could put uh keys, a cup, sunglasses, or a phone in the cup holders if you really want to. And up here, there’s another little tray with some more iconography there. It’s a nice rubberized section there. And you’ve got a dual glove box layout. Um, good to see. That’s handy. And also the much much loved pop out cup holders, bottle holders down there in the doors. Soft finishes where there should be. This cool gray finish does come across into the interior. You can see there it’s on the storm track finish there. The seats are lovely, comfortable, too. And you’ve got a big center console area uh with plenty of storage. And down here, you’ll also see there’s an important little button. That EV button will basically adjust what happens with the EV system. So you can have it in normal or charged by the engine. Um, and you can also choose different modes of EV driving when you have battery charge. I don’t have any battery charge, so it’s ruled out a couple of them. There’s also a couple of other controls there as you can see. So that button right there will come up with your off-road view camera system in the high-grade versions or if you have it optionally fitted with the surround view. That is really, really handy tech. means that when you go off-road, you can basically see what’s coming up, and that is nifty. You can also see your tire pressures, what’s happening with the powertrain, your off-road cruise control, and your diff lock. All done on screen. Very nifty. Here you’ll also see you’ve got a drive mode selector, and you can do the uh protra backup assist function there. So, if you are struggling to reverse a trailer, you can press that button and then turn with this to back the trailer into the spot that you are trying to get into. Um, it’s all very, very, very, very, very good, I have to say. Um, I really like the interior of this ute. Um, there are some other considerations I want to call out. This high-grade version gets the auxiliary switch bank up here. So, if you are going to, you know, get some lights or other accessories fitted to the vehicle, you can use that rather than have messy cables. You’ve got a overhead sunglasses holder. And here you’ve got a vanity mirror with lighting and no grab handle up there, but you do have a ho handle there. So, uh, yes, nifty, tidy, good. Let’s check out the back. All right, so the back seat experience. Yep, this seat is set for my driving position, and my knees are just brushing the seat ahead. My feet are tucked in underneath. It is not the most comfortable experience in the ute segment and in fact it might make the GWM Canon Alpha make a lot more sense. Uh tall occupants have plenty of headroom but leg room is the issue. You’ve got grab handles. There is a light up here as well and you’ve got some coat hooks at the back too. Now let’s have a look. Um yeah, if you’ve got a slouchy front occupant, yeah, that’s not going to be ideal. But you do get some directional air vents down here. There’s a power point, which is really, really handy, and USBC and A ports. And then there’s that. Uh, and you’ve got mat pockets on the seat backs. You got bottle holders in the doors. And there is also a flip- down armrest with cup holders. And you’ve also got a nifty set of top tether points that actually are mounted to the back. Rather than being one of those ones that comes in behind the uh center top belt with a strap, these ones actually uh fitted to the body of the vehicle. I think that makes a big difference for families. As someone who still has a kiddo in a child seat, this makes more sense to me. It makes it a more um I guess safe feeling experience and that could be a very important factor for some people. Hey, this is the only petrol version of the Ford Ranger currently available. That’s right. It has a 2.3 L turbocharged 4 cylinder petrol engine which has good power in its own right. 138 kW, 411 new m, but it’s teamed up to a clever electric motor integrated into the 10-speed hybrid transmission. And the electric motor offers up a pretty good 75 kW. So that means the peak system output for this vehicle is 27 kW and 697 new m and it has fulltime four-wheel drive with low range across the entire lineup. So let’s talk about the range and charging considerations for this electrified pickup truck. Okay, people, we need to talk about the battery in this Ford Ranger plug-in hybrid. It is small, 11.8 8 kW hours and it’s an NMC battery pack. That’s the usable figure. Um, so yeah, it is not a massive amount of battery capacity. It’s not a massive amount of EV driving range either. The NEC claim is 49 km. I didn’t get anywhere near that during my testing. I’ll show you that in a couple of segments time. Now, let’s have a look at the back here. You do have two filler points. So that’s your petrol filler point and this side is your electric charge port. But look at that. It’s just AC which is maybe not ideal for lots of people’s needs. And in fact the AC charge rate is very limited. 3.5 kW. So I mean it’ll mean a fast recharge but it is a small battery. Uh and that could be a consideration for some people. I don’t think that this is the best option if you are going to be prioritizing doing the EV driving thing. Uh but maybe it’s going to be better for those who are going to use that pro power onboard setup in the tub. So, what is the Ranger plug-in hybrid like to drive? Well, for the most part, it is similar to the existing Rangers. In some ways, it’s worse, in some ways it’s better. Uh first off, let’s talk about this powertrain because obviously it’s the big talking point here. Uh and there are a few different configurations that you might want to pick from if you are planning to use the plug-in hybrid to its full advantage. So, you’ve got four different drive modes that you can pick from. And they include EV auto, which is basically, well, the powertrain will decide when it should be in EV. It’s basically just like a hybrid mode. Then you’ve got EV now, which will well give you everything that there is in the battery straight away and you can run it to its depletion state. And then there’s EV later, which will save the amount of battery range you’ve got. And a charge mode as well, so you can use the petrol engine as a generator to uh refill the battery if that’s what you’re looking to do. Now, those modes do change the drive experience to a degree. Um, and obviously if you are running it as an EV, well, it drives very much like any other electric vehicle because it’s got a good amount of urgency. It’s relatively silent and it does have well good torque. That’s the whole thing with EVs and electric motors. You’ve got instant push uh from a standstill. So, that’s all great. Um, when you drive it as a hybrid, things are a little bit different because, well, the petrol engine will kick in and make a bit of racket. And it’s not the most powerful engine, I would say. Still, it’s not undercooked. It’s not gutless, and it does have enough grunt in a mix of different situations and a mix of different driving modes. The other thing about this um engine and transmission combination is it’s a 10-speed auto and it does have the electric motor integrated into the transmission. So, when you’re in EV mode, you can actually feel shifts happen. So, it’ll be uh silent, but you’ll still get a bit of a sensation of things changing uh when you’re going up through the gears. So, it’s kind of a peculiar feeling, but you will get used to it. Otherwise, this 10-speed auto is pretty dependable. um it seems to pick the right gear most of the time. There’s also the regen braking system integrated into this vehicle to make it uh try and replenish the battery as much as it possibly can in different driving situations. So, it’s not an aggressive regen system. Uh but when you take your foot off the throttle, it will come down to well kind of like a walking pace. Uh if you’re going uphill, it might even come to a complete stop. But I’m at walking pace right now and that’s sort of what you can expect from this regen braking system. Thankfully, the brake pedal feel isn’t too badly interrupted by the regen braking. Sometimes in electrified vehicles, you can have a bit of a sus feeling pedal. Uh, but this one pulls up pretty good. It’s not the best in terms of the brake response, but yeah, you just have to get used to the way the pedal action is because it’s different to the other ranges. And also slightly different to the other ranges is the steering. Um, it’s not as good in my opinion. It doesn’t feel quite as fingertip light and precise as some of the others. Uh, it’s got a bit of extra weight to it and a bit of sort of more meaty feeling to it. I mean, that might be to its benefit for some people, but I don’t like it as much as the other ranges. I just don’t think it has the same sort of dependability and predictability when it comes to the steering response. Um, it could be to do with the weight. It could be to do with the tune of the steering. It could be to do with the tires cuz they’re different as well. And those tires, well, they seem to be pretty good. Uh, but they’re certainly more about road driving than off-roading. And when it comes to the suspension, well, there is more weight to contend with in this vehicle, and I am pretty impressed with the ride comfort and the body control. It does handle things really well. Um, all Rangers do. There’s no Ranger that I’ve driven that has felt rubbish in terms of the ride comfort compared to some of the other utes out there, especially. Uh, but yeah, it coasts over lumps and bumps with ease and it deals with rougher sharp edges and uh bad surfaces really, really well. It’s also pretty refined. Um, it’s not too loud at highway speed. And I guess generally the drive experience is very very very positive. But let’s talk about the efficiency factor that you need to keep in mind with this vehicle and how much you can actually get out of a full charge when it comes to EV driving range. So, like I do in all my plug-in hybrid tests, I wanted to see whether the official combined cycle fuel consumption figure is realistic or not. You’ll see the official number on your screen. And just like most other plug-in hybrids, that’s pretty unrealistic in terms of what you might achieve in real world driving because, well, basically it takes into account that you will use all of your battery and then you’ll have to run as a hybrid beyond that. Uh, but I didn’t see anywhere near the official claimed number for the first 100ks. You’ll see what I saw on screen now. And that used 37 km of battery driving as part of that loop. Um, 37ks is pretty bloody piss week, I’ve got to say, compared to the others out there which do offer significantly more EV driving range. So, for instance, if you live in a satellite suburb and you need to commute to the city, in this ute, you might get halfway there. In the other utes, you might get there and halfway back, or maybe there and back completely. So, I think that’s something you need to pay attention to if you’re considering a plug-in hybrid Ranger. Hey, but what about after you’ve used the battery and well, you’re running it as a hybrid? So, I did the first 100 with a full battery, ran it flat, wanted to see what the fuel use would be, and then like I always do, I tried to do another 100ks uh to see what you might realistically achieve if you don’t get the opportunity to charge up. Say you’re on a road trip, you want to see what it’s actually going to be like in terms of realworld efficiency, and you’ll see that number on your screen. Again, it’s okay, but it’s certainly not as good as uh you might be expecting when you see the sticker number on this car. Um, but yeah, I mean, you’ve just got to remember it is a 2.6 ton dual cab ute with off-road capability and huge towing capacity and big payload and lots of other things. So, that’s part of the reason why it isn’t necessarily as efficient as the number suggests it probably could be. But hey, if you’re going to run it as an EV primarily, you’re going to have to do short trips primarily. And while I was using this vehicle as a hybrid, I still got some EV driving range for that second 100ks because, well, the powertrain is smart enough to allow it to run fully electric if there is some battery range available because it will try and top it up using regen braking as well. Also worth pointing out here, there is a big fuel tank capacity, so you will be able to do long-distance road trips at reasonable efficiency based on what I’ve seen. And it can run on 91 regular unleted. Hey, it even says it can run on E10. I don’t think I’d be personally putting E10 in my $9,000 ute, but hey, you can if you need to. The Ford Ranger does have a five-star ANCAP safety rating for the diesel models, but there is no confirmation yet of the same rating being applied to the plug-in hybrid models, but it does get all the same tech and spec as the diesels in terms of the safety gear. So, you’re getting things like autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian, cyclist, and junction detection. There’s also a lane keeping system and lane centering on high-grade versions. Plus, you’re getting things like adaptive cruise control. There’s also speed sign recognition on the high-spec versions. Thankfully, not annoying stuff. And it also has some pretty good features in terms of blind spot monitoring and rear cross traffic alert. And there’s front and rear parking sensors and a reversing camera on the entry grade. And if you step up a little higher into a wild track or a storm track, you get a surround view camera standard, but you can option that on the lower grades if you want to. So, look, for the most part, it seems to stack up pretty well for the safety gear. And it’s got nine airbags fitted. So there’s dual front, there’s driver’s knee and passenger’s knee, there’s a front center airbag and curtain coverage as well as front side airbags. So yeah, heaps and heaps of safety tech, heaps and heaps of airbags. And thankfully, none of it gives you the shits like some of those other alternatives I mentioned earlier. Ford Australia offers a 5year unlimited kilometer warranty for all of its models and the Ranger plug-in hybrid has an 8-year 160,000k warranty for the NMC battery pack. Now, you get roadside assistance included for free for the first year. Then it is topped up each time you service with your Ford dealership if you want to. And also the cap price servicing considerations are pretty decent. So, there’s a 5-year cap price plan. Service intervals are every 12 months and 15,000 KS. And each of those first five services will cost you just under 400 bucks a pop. And compared to the diesels, that means that this one is actually going to be a little bit more affordable to maintain on an ongoing basis. But hey, you still have to spend more to get it. I like the Ford Ranger, but I don’t think I like the plug-in hybrid as much as I like the diesel models. I think that the lack of EV driving range compared to those rivals and the price point really count against this vehicle. Look, it’s great in lots of ways, and if you need 3 and 1 half ton towing and off-road capability, maybe it will be the right ute for you. But I don’t think it’ll be the right ute for as many people as Ford might be hoping for. But have you seen the comments? What would you do? Would you choose this one of those alternatives or just go for a diesel ute? Thanks for watching and thanks for subscribing. I’ll see you when I see you.
The Ford Ranger PHEV has arrived. But is it good? Subscribe here: www.youtube.com/@therightcar?sub_confirmation=1
In this review you might be surprised to learn just what I think about the Ranger Hybrid.
I’m a Ranger fan. This is the most liveable ute on the market. But some of the changes here, and the pricing for this plug-in hybrid ute…. well, let’s just say I don’t think it’s the one to buy.
Instead, you might want to consider these alternatives:
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BYD Shark 6 – https://youtu.be/UVAxHXvuX8w
BYD Shark 6 first taste, inc off-road – https://youtu.be/RC0v9XZ6p9o
GWM Cannon Alpha PHEV – https://youtu.be/qDU-cUZ5YhE
Diesel Ford Ranger V6 – https://youtu.be/ERTzk1l6ft8
Ford Ranger Raptor – https://youtu.be/y92Ni5KatN4
All my ute reviews – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBy4fvI8Hf_TpSYGc8-A-ctg1WaFML28S
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00:00 Ford Ranger PHEV
00:24 Is it the right price?
02:33 What are the best alternatives?
03:39 Is it the right size?
07:32 Interior
14:09 Under the bonnet
15:00 Range and charging
16:09 Driving
20:59 Efficiency and EV range
23:51 Is it safe?
25:07 Ownership
26:00 Verdict
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