Australian-developed Ford Ranger to pioneer Nigerian production
African vehicle production is not something we’d normally cover, but every rule has an exception.
The Australian-designed and -engineered T6 Ford Ranger, now sold in between 150-180 countries (a significant majority of the globe, oddly enough not including the world's biggest pick-up market, the US) will be the Blue Oval brand's first car made within Africa’s largest economy: Nigeria.
Production will begin from the fourth quarter of this year, in the Lagos State about 750km southwest of Nigeria's capital city Abuja. Ford is partnering with dealer group Coscharis Motors Limited on the project, according to Just-Auto.
Vehicles will be assembled at a semi-knockdown level, meaning components will be shipped from South Africa and re-assembled domestically, and for the Nigerian market only. Given Nigeria has a population of about 170 million people, there’s sufficient scale.
The new assembly plant in Ikeja is intended to create approximately 180 jobs, with the capacity to assemble up to 5000 per annum.
"Assembling Ford Ranger trucks in Africa's largest economy is an important milestone in our Middle East and Africa growth plan," said Jim Benintende, president of Ford Middle East & Africa
The T6 Ford Ranger, which was developed by what is now called Ford’s Asia Pacific arm — with R&D based in Melbourne — is also made in Thailand (we get ours from there), South Africa and Argentina.
As we know, the mid-life updated T6 Ranger launches here this month. Alongside the Toyota HiLux and Mitsubishi Triton, it dominates the ute market and is one of the nation’s top 10-selling cars.
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