2023 Everest Raptor: Ford Australia keen on powerhouse SUV

UPDATE, March 2, 2022: Now that the new 2023 Ford Everest has been unveiled (read about it here), we've had our mate Theo Throttle knock together a couple of Everest Raptor renderings for us.

The first is above, and the second, a shot of the rear with some quad exhaust pipes and that Raptor badge, is below.

Would you be keen on a Raptorised Everest?

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A speculative image of the 2023 Ford Everest Raptor, rendered by Theo Throttle.

The story to here

February 22, 2022: A Raptor version of the new Ford Everest has been made more likely thanks to the Ford Bronco, but it still has to make the business case.

Speaking at the reveal of the 2022 Ford Ranger Raptor, Ford Performance Program Lead Justin Capicchiano – who has worked on the previous Ranger Raptor and FG X Falcon Sprint models – made it clear that the local Ford Performance team would be enthusiastic if a business case for an extreme Everest could stack up.

“Everest is a really cool product and I think anyone would love to work on a product like that [Everest Raptor], but it’s got to make sense. It’s got to make sense for every market and every market would have to do it,” Capicchiano said.

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Ford's new Bronco Raptor

The Raptor name was first applied to the F-150 in 2008 ahead of its introduction for the 2010 model year, and when the Ranger Raptor made its global debut in 2018 the possibility of an Everest Raptor seemed unlikely given its exclusive use on pick-ups.

Yet the announcement of a Bronco Raptor in January 2022 for North America has seen the nomenclature applied to an SUV for the first time – making an Everest Raptor less of an anomaly.

It’s also no secret that the current and future Ranger, Everest and Bronco share components, from their T6 platform as well as selected engines, transmissions and electronic architecture. Although Ranger and Everest differ when it comes to four-wheel drive and suspension set-ups, an Everest Raptor would be relatively simple, in theory at least. Moreover, platform costs have been further amortised with the launch of the Ford Bronco in North America and elsewhere, to Australian fan frustration.

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Adding to the case for the Raptor Everest is Toyota’s push on its Gazoo Racing (GR) line – which includes its LandCruiser SUV. While the tuned LandCrusier hasn’t been given the level of aggression that Ranger Raptor has, the proliferation of Gazoo Racing signals a potential fresh rivalry with Ford Performance in the off-road arena.

Still, Ford hasn’t made any commitment to grow the Raptor family.

“Right now, we don’t have any plans for it [Everest Raptor]. It’s not something that we’ve looked at specifically,” Capicchiano said. “The future’s an interesting state – we don’t tend to talk about what we do log- term, but Everest is a really cool product that we’d love to work on.”