Browse Facebook Marketplace and you’ll find all kinds of gems. Old Crown Victorias, random bits of glass, and even long-lost experimental vehicles from yesteryear. Like this amazing Ford Ranger EV, for example!
General Motors gets a lot of guff for what went down with the EV1. Really, though, there’s plenty of room to tease Ford, too. Back in the late 1990s, Ford’s grand experiment was building the very first Ranger EV. The pioneering truck faced similar struggles, and the program drew to a close after five years. However, unlike GM, Ford actually listened to pushback from the EV community, and it didn’t try and destroy every last example out there.
Thus, this example survived, and lives on in East Boston, Massachusetts. Now, it can be yours for the decidedly low sum of $3,000. Let’s look at what you’re getting.
Old, Tired Electrons
I’d love to tell you that this is a clean, humming example full of zip, vim, and vigor. But it’s not! This 1999 Ford Ranger EV has just 30,000 miles on the clock, and apparently no rust. It even comes with a charger! But sadly, it does not run. It does not start. As much as an EV “starts,” anyway.
This example has a nickel-metal hydride (NiMh) battery pack, which consists of 25 individual 12-volt NiMh batteries. According to the owner, these all successfully held a charge when charged individually, but the vehicle did not hum into life with them installed nevertheless.
That means some other electrical problem is stopping it from running. It could be as simple as a bad contactor, or as complicated as a totally dead motor or battery controller. In any case, you’d be buying this as a restoration project, not a fully-operable vehicle.
What Was It Like?
It’s a shame the truck doesn’t run, because the NiMh battery was the more advanced of the two that Ford offered in the first Ranger EV. Lacking the energy density of modern lithium-ion cells, the battery only had a capacity on the order of 26 kWh or so. That was good enough for an 82-mile range, or 65 miles at highway speeds—not bad for the time. In contrast, the lead-acid battery offered by Ford was only good for 65 miles at best, only achieving that kind of distance with rock-hard tires and mindful driving.
When the truck was operational, the three-phase induction motor offered 90 horsepower—not a whole lot for a vehicle weighing anywhere from 4200 to 4,700 pounds. At full charge, the NiMH model would hit 60 mph in 17.45 seconds. That dropped to a leisurely 19.91 seconds at 20% charge. Top speed was 77 mph, dropping off to 70 mph when the battery got low.
By and large, the Ranger EV was a fairly basic conversion of the contemporary ICE-powered model. The engine was pulled out, and a battery and motor were substituted instead. It drove the rear wheels only, using a De Dion suspension, much like the EV G Wagen. Amazingly, you still got all the typical mod cons of the time, including an AM/FM radio with cassette or CD, a heater, and air conditioning. You could spec power windows and locks and keyless entry if you so desired.
Still, there are some tells that let you know the EV model isn’t a regular Ranger. Besides the obvious decal on the side, the grille also featured a flap for accessing the charge port. As old as it is, it used an early “Avcon” style port.
If you’re handy with electronics, you could almost certainly find a way to resurrect this thing. Give it a modern lithium battery pack and a modern charge port and you might even be able to smash past 100 miles of range, or beyond! You’d also be driving a piece of American automotive history.
Honestly, if I had the garage space in Boston? This one would be hard to pass up. What I’m saying is, if you take this on, let me know how you go, yeah?
Image credits: Facebook Marketplace, Geoff Shepherd – CC BY-SA 2.5
