It would be neat if one could use a crate electric motor to run their Ranger. Wonder if someone will develop a kit for it?


https://media.ford.com/content/fordm...r-concept.html

 

Ford built electric Rangers and leased them out 1998-2002, seen here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Ranger_EV

Most were disassembled(scrapped) on lease return, but a few have survived, it is pretty old technology now a days

You can get "kits" for electric conversion in various ways
Electric wheel, just need one drive wheel, lol
Electric rear axles
Electric motor in place of gas or diesel engine, using same drive train

So you can convert your Ranger to electric, but it gets very expensive
Ford just came out with the Maverick hybrid, 4-door pickup, and at $20,000 - $25,000 it would be hard to do better on a conversion, battery packs for all electric are $10,000, which many forget to add to cost of conversion, lol, they cost out the electric parts

The idea of all electric is good but not practical for all people
Hybrid has no plug in, it uses gas or diesel engine to charge batteries as needed and to power vehicle on longer road trips, so just fill up and go, no re-charge delays
The Electric part is just used on short trips around town when highest pollution would happen with gas or diesel engines, i.e. stop and go traffic and slower speeds, at highway speeds engines have less pollution because they are more efficient, but its not no pollution

 

While that F-100 concept pickup looks nice, it might be hard to convince the wife that, for my ranger I spent $1300 for, I need to get an electric motor at $3900, not including the battery, controllers, etc. Might be hard. Guess I could try!

Still, it's a cool idea.

 

Yup, an electric ranger conversion would be cool, but to dive a little deeper on what Ron said, those electric fleet rangers used lead acid batteries, brushed motors, and had a very limited range and terrible power. If you did a conversion, it would not be practical. the ranger's design is simply not efficient enough for an electric conversion. the amount of drag and aerodynamic inefficiencies would kill your range even if you had the same pack size as a tesla. It would be expensive (even with DIY everything) and impractical. I wanted a Ford Maverick (truck) because of the hybrid and cost. its super cheap and it gets reeeally good mileage. Unfortunately, you have to wait like 8mo to get one through order and dealer markups for ones on the lot could be as much as twice msrp!

 

Have you seen this guy. He has a pretty tidy kit. Would be great to see one for a Ranger.

The Defender is not the most aero dynamic, but with all that Ranger Metal seems like a lot of steel to replace with new EVs. Especially when many owners go to the trouble of customising their Rangers only to be either scrapped or heavily taxed in the not too distance future.