Ford has finally pulled the silks off the all-new Bronco, and it looks to be an absolute beast of a thing.
As we exclusively revealed, and now confirmed by Ford, the Bronco comes with the option of a meaty 2.7-litre Nano EcoBoost turbocharged petrol V6 engine, mated to Ford’s 10-speed automatic transmission.
The Bronco is based on a modified version of the T6 platform that is shared with the Australian and US-specification Ford Ranger.
In fact, the initial Bronco mules first seen in Australia were cut-down versions of the Ford Ranger – throw back even further and the first T6-based Everest mules were half Ranger, half Ford Territory.
Including the EcoBoost V6 in the Bronco bodes well for Australia because of the lineage of engineering that goes into developing an engine to suit a platform.
Cramming a turbocharged petrol V6 under the bonnet of the Bronco means it’s highly likely that Ford will use that same engine in the American-market Ranger to form part of the next-generation Ranger Raptor – you can read more on our exclusive coverage of that here.
Developing a Ranger Raptor for the US market with this engine means the platform and the hardware associated with it is likely to be interchangeable with the Australian-specification Ranger.
It also follows the narrative from our confidential sources, which confirmed Ford would be fitting a turbocharged V6 diesel engine to the Ranger and Everest, and that Ford will be developing a plug-in hybrid option for Ranger and Everest to suit the same platform.
At a stretch, it could also mean that Ford offers Ranger Raptor in Australia with both a V6 diesel and EcoBoost V6 petrol engine – remember, a great deal of the engineering work will have already been done to make the package work for Bronco and US Ranger.
So watch this space closely. The screen shot we were sent from a prototype build sheet that confirmed a V6 for Bronco, along with the details we have from our confidential source on next-generation Ranger and Everest mean things are heating up in this segment in a big way.
Now all we need is the Ford F-150 and the Ford Bronco to be offered in Australia as factory right-hand drive vehicles. Then we’d be home and hosed.
MORE: Ford Bronco revealed
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MORE: Why Ford needs to bring the Bronco to Australia
