By not offering the RR in NA to start, Ford can gauge the response to pricing and build options to have a better idea of what will/wont work here. If it doesn't see a lot of success overseas, I doubt that they'll be developing a new powertrain for it.

Nissan and Toyota have been taking that approach for many years with the Frontier and Tacoma which goes to show what works. Even in todays market I think it's still a relevant move.

So why not at least offer something along the lines of a Wildtrak model for NA customers? That model has already proven to be successful and I don't think it will be all that costly to equip it with an EcoBoost.