So, here's a bummer: Ford's head of Performance Vehicles Thursday told a gathering of automotive journalists at the company's Dearborn, Mich., headquarters that there are no plans to bring the Ranger Raptor to the U.S. According to a report by Autoblog, Hermann Salenbauch, vehicle line director for Ford Performance, said that the Ranger Raptor is not coming to the U.S. for a variety of reasons.
First, it's not engineered for the U.S. — it's based on the global Ranger, not the slightly different American version, and bringing it up to U.S. specs would require too much time and investment. The changes to the truck would make it too expensive for the market.
Secondly, the purpose of the Ranger Raptor, according to Salenbauch, was to give the rest of the world the opportunity for a little Raptor love. The bigger F-150 Raptor is selling like crazy in the U.S., with just a 20-day turnover time on dealer lots, and always has — but most of the rest of the world doesn't get the enormous Baja-inspired off-road truck. The smaller Ranger Raptor just fits better in global markets.
Officially, word from Ford Performance is that no announcement is being made about a U.S. Ranger Raptor, one way or the other. "We don't have anything to announce regarding Ranger Raptor for North America," said a Ford spokesperson we contacted for confirmation of this report. The only official announcements have been about the Ranger Raptor for Asia-Pacific and European markets.
So yes, we're disappointed that we're probably not getting the smaller, more nimble, likely easier-to-park Ranger Raptor. But it just gives us more incentive to travel on the company dime to go try one out! Time to hit up the boss for that "research mission" to Australia ...
https://news.pickuptrucks.com/2018/10/ford-exec-confirms-no-ranger-raptor-for-the-us.html