Utes driving up Ford's profit Motoring Australian design a sales success Jared Lynch The Ford Ranger is selling well and has helped Ford record a full-year profit in the Asia-Pacific region. 
Ford's Australian-designed utility, the Ranger, is helping lift the US company's fortunes in the Asia- Pacific region, where it delivered a full-year profit for the first time since 2011.
The light trucks category, which includes vehicles such as pick-ups and utilities, helped propel Ford to a pre-tax profit of $US10.8billion ($15.4billion) - its highest result for its entire global operations.
Locally, the Ranger pipped its Japanese-owned rival, the Toyota Hilux, as Australia's best-selling ute for the third time in six months.
Ranger sales totalled more than 2400 in   January - a 35.5per cent increase compared with the same month in 2015, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.
The Ranger, which is built in Thailand and sold in about 200 markets, was the third best-selling vehicle in Australia behind the Mazda 3 and Toyota Corolla.
It helped quadruple Ford's pre- tax profit in the Asia-Pacific region to $US444million in three months to   December 31, from $US95million the year before.
The company didn't break down the results for its Australian division.
These will be announced in   May. But Ford chief executive Mark Fields said "the fruits of the labour of our Australian transformation plan are really starting to take hold". Ford Australia spokesman Wes Sherwood said the Australian business was strengthening and the Ranger's success was "a huge pride point among our designers and engineers here in Australia".
The Ranger outsold the Hilux for the first time in   September and again in   October. Mr Sherwood said that, at first, Ford's management thought it was an anomaly because Toyota was introducing a new Hilux model at the time. "We knew it was temporary and once they ramped up volumes of their new truck that they would very likely come back," he said.
But Mr Sherwood said overtaking Hilux wasn't in Ford's sights, although it was "a nice surprise".
"Our real goal is getting to private retail customers and having that drive our business, instead of less profitable fleet sales, which tend to rob the brand."
The Ranger was Ford's only vehicle in the top 20 best-selling cars. Sales of the Falcon, Ford's traditional family sedan, which will cease production in   October, dived about 40per cent to 235 last month. The Falcon ute declined by a similar amount, while the company's other locally built car, the Territory slid about 20per cent.
with Reuters