New Ford Ranger and Everest’s biggest update yet due 2026: Exclusive

EXCLUSIVE

The mid-life 'facelift' for the Ford Ranger ute and Ford Everest four-wheel-drive wagon is expected in Australian showrooms in 2026, future model plans seen by Drive reveal.

And both vehicles may exit production as soon as 2029 or 2030, production schedules posted online suggest, ahead of new models which could be more closely related to the full-size Ford F-150 sold in the US.

It will mean the seven-year life cycle of the current Ford Ranger will be considerably shorter than its predecessor's 11-year run – and the 10-year average typical of light commercial vehicles.

Little is known about at the updated Ford ute and 4WD wagon at this stage – and spy photos of the vehicles are yet to emerge.

The previous Ford Ranger was underwent two facelifts – in 2015 and 2018 – with exterior, interior, engine and technology changes ranging from minor to comprehensive.

The illustrations above – created by Theottle – are purely speculative, and illustrate what an updated Ranger with styling cues from the latest Ford F-150 pick-up could look like.

Plans seen by Drive list the facelifted Ranger and Everest as Model Year 2026 (MY26) vehicles, which could suggest the first Australian arrivals sometime in 2026, or the final months of 2025 at the earliest.

They would reach showrooms in what is shaping up to be a busy period for the ute category, with a new Toyota HiLux and Nissan Navara expected in the next two years, as well as a new LDV ute – possibly only with electric power.

A plug-in hybrid Ford Ranger has been confirmed for Australian showrooms in early 2025, with the current exterior and interior styling.

Production schedules posted publicly and seen by Drive suggest the current Ford Ranger and Everest – as well as the related Volkswagen Amarok – could wind up as soon as 2029 or 2030 for markets outside of North America.

It is widely expected the next-generation Ford Ranger – and Everest, assuming there will be another all-new model – will use a new global "body-on-frame" architecture to be shared with the next F-150, also due towards the end of the decade.

"Elements of the Ranger platform will integrate with Ford’s single, global body-on-frame flexible architecture, which will be led out of the United States," Ford announced in 2019.

"Certain powertrain… systems currently engineered in Australia will move to other powertrain sites globally, enabling complexity reduction and scale efficiencies."

It would mean the Ford Ranger in showrooms today is the last to be primarily designed and engineered in Australia.

Reports suggest US production of the Ford Ranger for North America is due to end in April 2031, information published online claims.

It is a long gap from the reported end of production for other markets, but the latest model did not go on sale in the US until the second half of 2023, more than a year after the first Thai examples were produced in May 2022 before arriving in Australia in August.