One year after its return to the North American market, Ford’s Ranger pickup can claim the title of the “most American-made” vehicle in U.S. showrooms.
Cars.com last month issued its 15th annual American-Made Index, which ranked 91 qualifying vehicles based on the location of final assembly, origins of engines and transmissions, percentage of components produced in North America, and the automakers’ U.S. manufacturing footprint.
The Ranger compact pickup was absent from the U.S. market from 2012 to 2018, but returned to domestic production in Wayne, Mich., last year. Cars.com officials said the 2020 model topped the list with 70% of its parts produced in the U.S. or Canada.
The Jeep Cherokee, which topped last year’s list under a different methodology, finished in the no. 2 spot, followed by two sedans from Tesla — the Model S and Model 3, respectively — which participated in the study for the first time.
Honda’s Odyssey minivan, Ridgeline pickup and Passport SUV — each built at the Japanese automaker’s Alabama plant — finished fifth, sixth and seventh, with the Chevrolet Corvette sports car, Tesla Model X SUV and Chevy Colorado pickup rounding out the top 10.
The Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, produced in Kentucky and other plants located overseas, came in at no. 91, but analysts cautioned against penalizing those models farther down the list. Just as the top-ranked car still sourced nearly a third of its parts from overseas, even the lowest-ranked models relied on U.S. auto workers to assemble the final product.