Forbidden No More: Ford Debuts 2023 Ranger Raptor & Confirms It's Coming to America

• February 22, 2022
• Story By
  Mike Garrett

While most of the attention Ford has been getting lately surrounds the Bronco, as well as the Bronco Sport and its cousin the Ford Maverick, one can forget that the Ranger pickup is still a very important vehicle for the company.

A couple of months ago Ford officially debuted the next-generation Ranger for the international market (with the US version set to debut imminently)—and now they’ve taken the wraps off the next generation Ranger Raptor.

More Power

The first generation Ranger Raptor was never offered in North America, but that looks like it’s about to change. We’ll get to that in a moment, but first some basic details on the second-gen model.

Power comes from a 3.0L twin-turbo EcoBoost V6 tuned to make 392 horsepower and 430-pound feet of torque through a 10-speed automatic transmission and will sing through an active exhaust setup.

Power will be fed to all four wheels through a full-time 4WD system with an electronic two-speed transfer case and there will be seven different terrain modes for everything from normal road driving to rock crawling to high-speed desert running.

Not surprisingly, a lot of the Ranger Raptor’s toys are shared with the recently-debuted Bronco Raptor—and those include FOX off-road shocks with Live Valve technology that can react to varied terrain instantly.

Formula for Fun

Ranger Raptor also gets other fortifications over the standard Ranger, including a strengthened chassis, suspension parts that are both lighter and stronger than normal and increased underbody protection.

As you’d expect, the Ranger Raptor also gets a tougher exterior:with widened fenders, cooling vents, a signature Raptor grille and other functional tweaks that set it apart from the standard model.

Last but not least, the cabin gets its own Raptor-specific enhancements including orange accents, and most notable of all, a pair of aggressive sport seats up front that Ford says were inspired by a jet fighter plane.

Coming to America

Now back to the issue of the Ranger Raptor coming to North America. The answer is yes, at least according to Ford CEO Jim Farley who just confirmed on Twitter that the Ranger Raptor will indeed be coming to America “next year”.

We’ll have to wait and see if our version differs from this one in any meaningful way, but off-road enthusiasts have a lot to be excited about.

If you liked the “big” F-150 Raptor, but thought it was too large or too expensive, the Ranger might be the perfect sweet spot of modern off-road machines.