Reviving the Ranchero name

[24hrsun]

Looks like Ford may be planning to use the Ranchero name with the new EV they are about to announce. Sounds like the new truck will slot in next to the Maverick possibly. Looks like a lot of guessing still going on.

https://fordauthority.com/2025/08/ford-ev-pickup-could-be-called-ranchero/

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[lajlmt]

Saw that! In the picture they show a Ranger. I wonder if that’s the platform.

 

[Blue_Max]

Oh boy, this will be a hot debate.

 

[24hrsun]

Oh boy, this will be a hot debate.

I think we will need to see what it looks like and just how they are targeting it. I am sure there will be a lively discussion. LOL

 

[24hrsun]

Looks like Farley is saying the first will be targeted at urban and commercial customers. Considering 75% of EV sales are fleet sales this makes sense. But not really in the same wheelhouse of the Maverick.

“Our first one, we’re going to show everyone in Kentucky the platform. We’re going very low end, super affordable, EV for urban duty cycles and for commercial,” Farley said during a recent interview with Bloomberg Television.

 

[Bic]

Maybe the coolest part of that article is Farley's closing comment that Ford might get into the energy storage business. Why would that make sense for a car company that is also a battery manufacturer with excess battery manufacturing capacity? To understand why we first need to understand how electricity is commercially generated.

Electrical generation is a mix of "base load" generation and "peak load generation".

Base load generation are those 24 x 7 x 365 electricity producers such as nuclear plants, coal-fired plants and hydro-electric generation plants. These plants always operate at or near 100% of their capacity and can't be "turned down" on demand. The electricity they produce is enough for most of the 24-hr day but not enough for peak usage times (e.g 5-9PM local time). Base load produces too much electricity starting about 10PM or so and all through the night. That excess electricity is wasted since there isn't sufficient storage capacity to save it for later use during the peak usage times.

Peaking generators are such sources as diesel (or natural gas, even sometimes gasoline) fired internal combustion engines turning generators. Unlike base load generators, peak generators can be brought online and taken offline quickly and can be throttled up and down as needed. But they are much more expensive (per kilowatt generated) to run than base generators. They are also producing more pollution per KW generated than base load generation. So reducing peaking generation makes both economic and environmental sense. Storing excess base load generated electricity during the night and using it later during the peak demand times would save money, reduce emissions, help global warming, etc.

Current energy storage systems are very inefficient. For example pumping water uphill during the night and having that water flow back downhill through a turbine turning a generator yields only about 20% of the electricity used to pump the water uphill. But these water-pumping systems are used today because they make economic sense since they are consuming "free" electricity that would otherwise be wasted and are generating electricity during peak demand times that at lower $ and environmental cost that other peaking sources.

Storing surplus electricity in batteries and pulling it out of those batteries later has a much better yield, maybe 70% or so with current battery technology and likely better than that yield in the future as battery technology evolves.

It's no coincidence that Tesla offers home energy storage systems. They are a major battery manufacturer and have excess battery manufacturing capacity.

So too is Ford!

 

[Waterick]

Ford files many patents just to keep their options open and others from using names and ideas. This may or may not really indicate what the name will be, just another candidate.

 

[TheShark]

Ford files many patents just to keep their options open and others from using names and ideas. This may or may not really indicate what the name will be, just another candidate.

So true, they also filed trademarks for Evos, Fathom, Fuze, Hive, and Mythic.

 

[OneAlienBoi]

So because the ranchero was a truck that basically had muscle car/coupe design elements, and Ford's CEO has said these affordable EVs will look nothing like people expect, to the point where he doesn't know how people will react, and the areo is being done by redbull f1 employees, I'm hoping this truck looks radical.

Ford already has the traditional 3 box truck design market pretty filled out. You want a normal looking small affordable truck? There's your maverick. You want a normal looking medium sized truck? Ranger. Then of course you have the f-series. Then on top of that you have all sorts of variants and powertrains, everything from a supercharged V8, to a hybrid and EV. So much variety in terms of price, size, and powertrain, but what they don't differ in by a huge amount is the styling cues.

One of the only types of trucks Ford doesn't have is a lifestyle truck with bold styling. I'd love it if this affordable EV truck was something like almost looked like a muscle car, or even a sports/supercar instead of a conventional truck. If the maverick is all about appealing to non truck owners while still retaining that traditional truck look, this ranchero could be a lifestyle truck that takes it to a whole new level, appealing to people who like the idea of truck practicality, but want to sex appeal of a muscle or super car, which is what ford was going for with the original ranchero.

 

[Blue_Max]

So because the ranchero was a truck that basically had muscle car/coupe design elements....

Ranchero didn't always have that. It predated muscle cars.

 

[TheShark]

Are you saying my Dad's 62 Falcon straight 6 was not a muscle car? I disagree. It may have been flabby muscles but it could go from 0 to 60 any day of the week. Might take most of the day to do it but it eventually would hit 60 .

Kind of like my father's '64 Falcon with the 200ci 6. I remember when it got older and started to burn oil my father would always say "it's old enough to smoke".

 

[24hrsun]

The recent comments I have seen is that there are actually 2 trucks. There is a midsize truck that they will be talking about on Monday which is currently slated for 2027 launch. And there is the T3. Which apparently the T3 is the F150 class truck successor. That truck was delayed this week to 2028 now. Monday hopefully gives us enough details so we have an idea what they are thinking.

 

[OneAlienBoi]

Just to kind of illustrate what I'm thinking of, I do my own designs for fun, awhile back, I started working on a small EV truck design, I wanted something practical, so I went with a shorter hood. When the truck looked like a normal boxy truck, the cab forward design looked like hell, and I was struggling to find a unique way to make this interesting.

What looks good with short hood, can forward proportions? Mid-engine supercars. An EV has most of the weight in between the wheels, like a mid-engine supercar does

Ranchero didn't always have that. It predated muscle cars.

True, but later versions were straight up muscle cars, I believe they shared metal with the gran Torino. But yeah, even though it would be very unconventional, I'd love it if Ford came out with a more radical looking truck, like this rendering but even more extreme. Most people dream of owning a muscle or super car, and love how they look, but those aren't super practical. Imagine if you had something with less conventional looks that still had truck utility.

If Ford offered something like this, you basically get 3 cars in 1, a small truck, an affordable EV, and something that looks like the car of your dreams. That's insanely unconventional, but I can see that genuinely resonating with a lot of people.

I do my own designs for fun, the black and white image still needs some work in terms of the surfaces and proportions, but it gives you a loose idea of what I have in mind. Going in this direction allows you to give a truck a shorter hood with a longer bed in a way that still looks good. This wouldn't appeal to staunch traditionalists, but it's not meant to.

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