Sam Krahn 
After years of the Ford Ranger Raptor being forbidden fruit, it’s all but confirmed the next generation truck will make it to our shores. Further adding credence to this is a report by the folks over at Australia’s CarExpert, we now have definitive proof the baby Raptor will come to the U.S. for the first time ever. Better yet, we know what engine it will have, and CarExpert has supplied us with some rendering they say are just what the truck will look like. Here’s everything we know about the U.S. bound 2022 Ford Ranger Raptor.
First, here’s how we know it’s coming to the U.S. Back in 2018, Ford filed a naming trademark and images for a domestic market Ranger Raptor, but the truck never made it here. Overseas in markets like Australia, the Ranger Raptor has a four cylinder diesel engine with a rather sheepish 210 hp, at least by American standards. This would never fly in the land of 450 hp F-150 Raptors, but Ford didn’t have a suitably powerful engine developed for the T6 platform.
But the Ranger based Ford Bronco is coming soon, and it’ll have an optional 2.7 liter EcoBoost V6 engine with 325 hp, nicknamed the Nano. Ford was likely waiting for the Nano V6 to be integrated into the Bronco platform, so bringing it to the next-gen Ranger Raptor would be easier. A screenshot from a supposed Ford computer, below, also shows information for a 2021 or newer, left hand drive Ranger that will get the 2.7 liter Nano V6 and all wheel drive.
That said, we need to consider the following. This is the third powertrain alleged to be in the next-generation Ford Ranger Raptor. A recent report implied that the 2022 Ford Ranger Raptor would be a V6 diesel, while another claimed a 3.0L EcoBoost V6 with 400 horsepower that will be shared with a so-called Bronco Raptor (or whatever they end up calling the range-topping off-road SUV). Make of this what you will.
The renderings the Australian outlet has supplied to us show a more modern looking truck, but with the traditional aggressive design and flared fenders we have come to expect with a Raptor product. According to their confidential source who has seen the final product, this is just what the 2022 Ford Ranger Raptor will look like. Supposedly, the Ranger Raptor will pick up the fancy Fox Live Valve dampers from the bigger F-150 Raptor, too.
Overall, this is exciting news for off-road fans in the U.S. By 2022, we will likely have no shortage of go-anywhere machines from Ford Performance in the near future, in several shapes and sizes.
