Blue Oval defends Ford Ranger Raptor safety

Full Australian specs have been revealed for the Ford Ranger Raptor and a key omission is autonomous emergency braking (AEB).

Ford says it's working to add the important safety feature, not only to the Raptor but the entire Ranger line-up, some time next year.

AEB automatically brakes a vehicle if it detects an imminent collision. The system is now all but a pre-requisite to receive a top five-star ANCAP safety rating.

For the upcoming MY19 Ranger family, AEB is standard on the top-shelf Wildtrak and a $1700 option for the premium XLT as part of the XLT Teck Pack, which also includes Active Park Assist and Traffic Sign Recognition.

It's missing from the rest of the Ranger line-up.

The Ford Ranger Raptor is likely to inherit the five-star ANCAP rating from the T6 Ranger line-up. The Ranger was last tested in 2015 and was the first one-tonne ute to receive Australia's top safety mark when it was launched in 2011. But if it was crash tested under this year's more stringent ANCAP scoring regime it would struggle to achieve five stars.

Ford contends that given about three-quarters of all Rangers sold in Australia are high-spec XLTs or Wildtraks, the vast majority of them will have AEB.

"For the change that we're making for what we're calling the ICA, the new [MY19] Ranger, about 70 to 80 per cent of our Rangers will have AEB, so the vast majority of Rangers that people will buy will have AEB," said Ford Asia Pacific's vice-president of product development, Trevor Worthington.

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"We've got a firm plan to deliver AEB on all the other Rangers and we're working on it," he said.

"People are going to love the new Ranger, they're going to love the Ranger Raptor and we'll be in a position next year to let you know when the rest of the range – the 20 per cent that don't have the feature – will get it."

Worthington said only logistical hurdles stand between the fitment of AEB in the Raptor and – at least optionally – the wider Ranger line-up.

"It's really just about the complexity of programs like this," he said.

"You'll notice there are some physical differences between the vehicle you're looking at here [Raptor] and the ICA [Ranger update], so there's some unique work we've had to do which means it will be available in the not too distant future.

"It will be a rolling update. Whenever it's ready it will be rolled out. Programs like these are very complex with all the technology and there's a lot of things about this vehicle that really means we weren't able to do it for job one," Worthington explained.

The former Ford Australia product development chief says the Blue Oval chose not to hold off on launching the Raptor until it could be equipped with the same standard safety suite as the Wildtrak on which it's based.

"On Ranger we've always been a leader in terms of the technologies our customers appreciate, so there's no backing off from that position. It's about making sure we deliver everything that we think our customers are going to want.

"We know how important it is. We've got lots of different safety features in our vehicles and it'll be available soon," he stated.

Worthington wouldn't say whether the Raptor safety upgrade will also include adaptive radar cruise control – the only other technology seen in Wildtrak but not Raptor.

"We'll talk about that when we're ready," he said.

The Ranger Raptor is the first vehicle to get a new-generation Ford Stability Control (FSC) system with extra lateral sensors.

Apart from carry-over tech like Ford's 8.0-inch SYNC3 touch-screen infotainment with reversing camera, voice control, Bluetooth and sat-nav, it also comes standard with lane departure warning, lane-keep assist, traffic sign recognition, hill-descent and hill-start control, trailer sway control, roll-over mitigation, roll stability control, load-adaptive control, HID headlights and rear parking sensors.

The upgraded 2019 Ford Ranger line-up and the new Ford Ranger Raptor are available to order now, ahead of first deliveries in September and October respectively.