Ford Performance boss hints at gas-powered Ranger Raptor for US

Ford’s own performance chief gave a surprisingly candid answer when asked whether the Ranger Raptor would ever come to America — and it wasn’t a simple yes or no. Jamal Hameedi explained exactly which engines could power a U.S. version, why the diesel it launched with never stood a chance stateside, and why the truck’s suspension impressed him more than its horsepower numbers. Read on to find out what it actually took to bring a Raptor-badged Ranger to American driveways.

Some trucks are built for one part of the world and quietly kept from another. For years, that has been the story of the Ranger Raptor — a pickup engineered to bash through desert whoops and rock gardens, sold everywhere from Australia to South Africa, but never officially offered to the one market that arguably wants it most. When Ford’s own performance chief sat down for an interview shortly after the truck’s global reveal, he did not just dodge the question of a U.S. version. He answered it in a way that made clear exactly what was standing in the way — and it was not desire.

A Baja Truck Built for Everywhere Except America

Ford unveiled the Ranger Raptor as a global performance pickup, engineered by Ford Performance to bring desert-running capability to the mid-size Ranger line the way the F-150 Raptor had already done for the full-size truck. The version shown at launch came with a 210-horsepower diesel engine, a powertrain built around fuel economy and torque for markets like Australia, Europe, and Asia where diesel pickups dominate sales. That same engine, however, was never going to satisfy U.S. buyers raised on gasoline V8s and turbocharged V6s, which is exactly the problem Ford Performance chief vehicle engineer Jamal Hameedi found himself explaining.

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The Question Ford Wasn’t Ready to Answer

Speaking with the automotive outlet Drive, Hameedi did not shy away from confirming what enthusiasts suspected: the Ranger Raptor could sell well in the United States, but not with the diesel it launched with. “Raptors are a slam dunk for the U.S.; I think [the Ranger Raptor] would do really well in the states,” Hameedi said, adding that most American off-roaders would prefer a gas engine even though he considers diesel the right call for the rest of the world. It is a rare moment of a factory engineer publicly splitting the difference between what a global product needs and what an American buyer actually wants.

Borrowing Horsepower From the Mustang’s Parts Bin

If Ford did bring a gas engine to the Ranger Raptor, Hameedi pointed to two engines already sitting on the shelf. The 2.3-liter turbocharged inline-four from the Mustang EcoBoost produces 310 horsepower and 320 lb-ft of torque in its standard tune — and as much as 350 hp and 350 lb-ft in the higher-strung version fitted to the Focus RS. The alternative was the 2.7-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 out of the Fusion Sport sedan, rated at 325 hp and 350 lb-ft. For reference, the full-size F-150 Raptor’s 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6 produces 450 hp and 510 lb-ft, so neither Ranger option was ever going to out-muscle its big brother — it did not need to.

A Suspension Praised Higher Than the Engine

What genuinely seemed to excite Hameedi was not the powertrain debate but the way the Ranger Raptor drove. He described its handling as better than any other pickup he had driven, F-150 Raptor included, crediting a new Watts-link rear suspension design for keeping the smaller truck composed at speed. “[The Ranger Raptor] really is the best handling pickup truck I’ve driven, and not by an insignificant margin,” he said, adding that the Watts-link setup alone would make the truck well-suited to American roads and trails regardless of what sat under the hood.

Why Ford Was in No Rush to Say Yes

Asked directly why Ford had not simply announced a U.S.-spec Ranger Raptor on the spot, Hameedi’s answer was refreshingly candid: the company’s immediate priority was making sure the rest of the world finally had access to some version of a Raptor-badged Ranger before diverting engineering attention to a market-specific gas variant. It was not a rejection, just a sequencing problem — and one that left American Raptor fans watching global market launches with more than a little envy while comparable trucks from Ford’s own lineup rolled off assembly lines everywhere except the United States.

A Nameplate Still Finding Its Footing in America

Part of what made the wait sting was that the Ranger itself had only recently returned to U.S. showrooms after a lengthy absence, having been pulled from the American market for several years while Ford focused on the F-150 and larger trucks. Reintroducing the nameplate stateside was already a bet that mid-size truck buyers wanted more choice below the F-150, and a U.S. Raptor variant would have been the natural next step in proving that bet correct — which made Hameedi’s hedging in the interview feel less like corporate caution and more like a truck genuinely waiting for its moment.

The Raptor Badge Was Never Meant to Stay Small

The Raptor name itself had already proven, through the F-150 version, that a factory-built desert-racing truck could be both a genuine off-road tool and a commercial success, and Ford Performance clearly saw no reason that formula couldn’t scale down to a smaller platform. Extending a halo performance badge across more than one nameplate is a well-worn playbook in the industry, and Hameedi’s comments made clear Ford viewed the Ranger Raptor less as a one-off experiment and more as the next logical chapter in that badge’s story.

The Wait Ended — Eventually

Years later, Ford did bring a gasoline-powered Ranger Raptor to American dealerships, vindicating Hameedi’s read of the market and proving that the appetite he described in that interview was real. The path from a global diesel-only launch to a U.S.-market gas truck took longer than anxious fans wanted, but it followed almost exactly the logic Hameedi laid out: sort out the rest of the world first, then build the truck America was actually asking for.

What Fans Actually Took Away From the Interview

Beyond the specific engine talk, what stuck with enthusiast readers was how directly Hameedi engaged with the question instead of offering the usual corporate non-answer. Truck buyers are used to hearing “we don’t comment on future product” from executives asked about anything not yet confirmed for a given market, so a sitting Ford Performance chief laying out real engine options, real horsepower figures, and a real suspension detail in a single interview was itself unusual enough to generate its own round of coverage independent of whether a U.S. Ranger Raptor ever actually arrived.

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