Ford CEO Alan Mullaly may have made a minor slip recently on live television. As he was promoting the official debut of the all-new 2011 Ford Explorer, Mullaly was may have accidently disclosed that Ford will officially be launching an "all-new Ranger." This may confirm all of those spy photos that have been appearing on the internet for some time. Up until now, Ford has said those photos are for a new smaller truck being developed for the South American market.

Yeah, right. If Mullaly's statement holds true, we could be seeing the new Ranger on the road sometime in 2012, possibly being introduced as an early 2013 model. The compact pickup truck segment has always been popular in the US, but sales have declined in recent years. Now that automakers, especially Ford, are heavily concentrated on building smaller cars, it would only make sense for Ford to introduce a new Ranger that would probably be powered by the four-cylinder EcoBoost.