I think they meant it has much larger % share of pickup market in Europe vs US, not necessarily higher absolute number of sales (https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/feu/en/news/2025/02...)

Surely the hilux would be more popular than the ranger, but maybe Toyota just sends those to the developing world and Australia?

The Hilux is the second best selling truck in Europe, as far as I can tell.

The similar (but not identical) US model is the Tacoma.

The Tacoma is gussied up and not Spartan/repairable as the Hilux. I guess it’s more comparable to the current ranger than the hilux is, I wonder if ford makes a stripped down ranger for the developing world? Are there any Ranger Jeepneys? Maybe the T6? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Ranger_(T6)

Oddly enough, it says this was developed in Australia but might be the ranger selling in the USA/Europe now (the same one we are talking about). But the P703 is the model (a T6 variant) sold internationally now. It doesn’t surprise me that the current ranger was designed abroad. What I really don’t get is that ford doesn’t make cars in Australia anymore but they still design them there?

All Rangers are T6-platform Rangers now. It was designed well before the factories closed in Australia, but global automakers have been steadily consolidating to global-platform cars since the 1990s. The locality of the design doesn't matter as much when it'll be used across the world. It makes the most sense to design them where there is good design talent, and build them where it is economical to build them.

> The similar (but not identical) US model is the Tacoma.

This is a very common misconception.

At no point have the hilux and Tacoma shared any parts. Not engines, transmissions, frames, breaks, axles, wiring or anything interior.

The hilux is a small efficient turbo diesel with plenty of torque. The Tacoma is an anemic gas V6 that gets horrible mileages.

The Tacoma is significantly larger, and has a lower payload.

The hilux is an actual utility work vehicle, the Tacoma cosplays as one.

I’ve lived in Australia and Canada for 20 years each, driven many models of each many tens of thousands of kilometres.

> At no point have the hilux and Tacoma shared any parts. Not engines, transmissions, frames, breaks, axles, wiring or anything interior.

They are on different platforms and are significantly different vehicles but they absolutely have shared parts. There are no bespoke cars built anymore, it is no longer viable to build a mass produced car without using some parts off the shelf.

For example, both vehicles have used: 2TR-FE engine, RC60F manual transmission, AC60F automatic transmission, etc.

I'd love to buy a Hilux in the US but they aren't available. Drove them in South America for years and they're great vehicles.

Thank you, that makes sense. But in that case it doesn't do much for the op's argument, which seems to be that Europe _prefers massive cars_. US still has much more of obscenely big cars, and Ford F having less % pickup market share shows that there's much bigger market for these cars, if anything

For the most recent year numbers were published it also had better raw numbers.

Where in Europe is that? Because in southern Europe pickups are very rare, but maybe they're more common in the north.