A year of product transition in South Africa as Ford’s new vision takes shape
18 November 2022 - 06:00
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The all-new Ford Ranger will debut in December. Picture: SUPPLIED
After Henry Ford launched the Model T Ford, the car that revolutionised mass manufacturing, he reputedly declared in 1909 that customers could choose any colour they wanted “so long as it is black”.
This week, Ford Motor Company Africa president Neale Hill echoed that thought with another message: South African customers can choose any Ford car they want so long as it’s a Mustang “muscle car” costing over R1m.
Ford is no longer the everyman/woman company it used to be. Globally, it is moving out of the sedan and hatchback car markets, where it made its name, to concentrate on SUVs. More broadly, it is also accelerating its shift towards electric vehicles.
In the UK, millions of motorists are seeking counselling after Ford recently announced that it is about to discontinue the Fiesta, that market’s top-selling vehicle for 12 consecutive years from 2009 to 2020.
In South Africa, the only car available through Ford dealers is the Mustang. The only small vehicle, the imported EcoSport SUV, is being discontinued and South African stocks will run out early in 2023. Hill says another SUV will be launched later in the year. Other new products will follow in 2024.
He says that 2023 “will be a lean product year, one of transition”.
He hopes part of the sales volume gap will be filled by the Ford Transit van range. It hasn’t achieved the market penetration some Ford marketers hoped for. Hill says: “I believe there is an opportunity for us to do more with Transit.”
Fortunately, there’s always the Ranger bakkie. Production of the latest model began this week, after a R15.8bn investment from Ford in the US. The first unit rolled off the assembly line on Monday. Numbers are limited for now so that engineers can check final processes before giving the go-ahead for commercial production.
As it starts to get up to speed, the assembly plant in Silverton, Tshwane, is building only double-cab versions. Hill says the first ones will arrive on dealer floors mid-December. Single-cab production will start in January.
He says Ranger pre-orders already exceed 4,500 and are growing daily. There is also strong demand for the new Everest SUV and Raptor high-performance bakkie, both of which are based on the Ranger. Previous generations were built at Silverton but the new ones are imported.
The Ranger launch is a ‘key milestone’ in the local history of the Ford brand, which will celebrate its South African centenary in 2023
Production of the outgoing Ranger ended last week. Since 2011, Silverton has built 857,751 vehicles, of which nearly 603,000 were exported to more than 100 markets around the world.
Of the R15.8bn investment, R10.3bn was spent at Silverton and R5.5bn at components suppliers, to help them prepare for the new vehicle. Many of them are based at a new special economic zone adjoining the assembly plant. The investment has created 1,200 new jobs at Ford and 10,000 at suppliers.
The plant has been completely modernised, including the construction of its first on-site stamping plant, a new, highly automated body shop, and the introduction of the latest vehicle assembly operations on the trim, chassis and final lines.
A further R600m was spent upgrading Ford’s Struandale engine plant in Gqeberha.
The Silverton investment was announced in February last year. Andrea Cavallaro, operations director of Ford’s international markets group (IMG), admits he had occasional doubts that everything would fall into place in time, particularly where it involved outside parties, but local operations vice-president Ockert Berry insists deadlines were always going to be met. “We always believed we could deliver.”
Well, almost always. Even he wondered if it was possible to strip and re-equip the full trim plant in seven weeks. It was. He adds that when Silverton production returns to normal — three shifts daily from Monday to Friday — Ford South Africa will account for more than 1% of South African GDP.
Hill says that to complete the project in the time available was “nothing short of extraordinary”. The Ranger launch is a “key milestone” in the local history of the Ford brand, which will celebrate its South African centenary in 2023.
Cavallaro adds: “We have put immense effort, resources and the latest technologies in place to ensure that the new Ranger is truly world-class, and that the Silverton plant globally equals the very best.”
Silverton is one of three plants in the world manufacturing the new Ranger. The other two are in Thailand. IMG president Dianne Craig says the Ford group is “heavily dependent on Ranger for our profitability”.
With the investment, annual production capacity at Silverton has increased from 168,000 vehicles to 200,000. Once volumes are back to normal, Hill says it will build 742 vehicles daily.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
DAVID FURLONGER: Ranger underpins Ford’s future
A year of product transition in South Africa as Ford’s new vision takes shape
After Henry Ford launched the Model T Ford, the car that revolutionised mass manufacturing, he reputedly declared in 1909 that customers could choose any colour they wanted “so long as it is black”.
This week, Ford Motor Company Africa president Neale Hill echoed that thought with another message: South African customers can choose any Ford car they want so long as it’s a Mustang “muscle car” costing over R1m.
Ford is no longer the everyman/woman company it used to be. Globally, it is moving out of the sedan and hatchback car markets, where it made its name, to concentrate on SUVs. More broadly, it is also accelerating its shift towards electric vehicles.
In the UK, millions of motorists are seeking counselling after Ford recently announced that it is about to discontinue the Fiesta, that market’s top-selling vehicle for 12 consecutive years from 2009 to 2020.
In South Africa, the only car available through Ford dealers is the Mustang. The only small vehicle, the imported EcoSport SUV, is being discontinued and South African stocks will run out early in 2023. Hill says another SUV will be launched later in the year. Other new products will follow in 2024.
He says that 2023 “will be a lean product year, one of transition”.
He hopes part of the sales volume gap will be filled by the Ford Transit van range. It hasn’t achieved the market penetration some Ford marketers hoped for. Hill says: “I believe there is an opportunity for us to do more with Transit.”
Fortunately, there’s always the Ranger bakkie. Production of the latest model began this week, after a R15.8bn investment from Ford in the US. The first unit rolled off the assembly line on Monday. Numbers are limited for now so that engineers can check final processes before giving the go-ahead for commercial production.
As it starts to get up to speed, the assembly plant in Silverton, Tshwane, is building only double-cab versions. Hill says the first ones will arrive on dealer floors mid-December. Single-cab production will start in January.
He says Ranger pre-orders already exceed 4,500 and are growing daily. There is also strong demand for the new Everest SUV and Raptor high-performance bakkie, both of which are based on the Ranger. Previous generations were built at Silverton but the new ones are imported.
Production of the outgoing Ranger ended last week. Since 2011, Silverton has built 857,751 vehicles, of which nearly 603,000 were exported to more than 100 markets around the world.
Of the R15.8bn investment, R10.3bn was spent at Silverton and R5.5bn at components suppliers, to help them prepare for the new vehicle. Many of them are based at a new special economic zone adjoining the assembly plant. The investment has created 1,200 new jobs at Ford and 10,000 at suppliers.
The plant has been completely modernised, including the construction of its first on-site stamping plant, a new, highly automated body shop, and the introduction of the latest vehicle assembly operations on the trim, chassis and final lines.
A further R600m was spent upgrading Ford’s Struandale engine plant in Gqeberha.
The Silverton investment was announced in February last year. Andrea Cavallaro, operations director of Ford’s international markets group (IMG), admits he had occasional doubts that everything would fall into place in time, particularly where it involved outside parties, but local operations vice-president Ockert Berry insists deadlines were always going to be met. “We always believed we could deliver.”
Well, almost always. Even he wondered if it was possible to strip and re-equip the full trim plant in seven weeks. It was. He adds that when Silverton production returns to normal — three shifts daily from Monday to Friday — Ford South Africa will account for more than 1% of South African GDP.
Hill says that to complete the project in the time available was “nothing short of extraordinary”. The Ranger launch is a “key milestone” in the local history of the Ford brand, which will celebrate its South African centenary in 2023.
Cavallaro adds: “We have put immense effort, resources and the latest technologies in place to ensure that the new Ranger is truly world-class, and that the Silverton plant globally equals the very best.”
Silverton is one of three plants in the world manufacturing the new Ranger. The other two are in Thailand. IMG president Dianne Craig says the Ford group is “heavily dependent on Ranger for our profitability”.
With the investment, annual production capacity at Silverton has increased from 168,000 vehicles to 200,000. Once volumes are back to normal, Hill says it will build 742 vehicles daily.
Ford Africa boss hails start of Ranger production as milestone
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Forecasts vary amid flagging new-vehicle market
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