Ford’s Escape first arrived on the scene in 2000, and on the time, your complete compact SUV phase consisted of simply 5 different autos. Occasions have modified, although, as a result of the all-new 2020 Ford Escape is wading right into a phase that now has virtually 30 fashions vying for no matter white house will be discovered. It is the trade’s largest and hottest phase, so it’s going to take nothing lower than an excellent automobile to rise to the highest. On the 2019 New York Auto Present, the Blue Oval revealed its try to say the highest of the mountain for itself: the 2020 Ford Escape.
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2020 Ford Escape is a citified slicker SUV
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Using astride a brand new, stiffer platform and spanning longer, decrease and wider than its forebearer, the 2020 Escape vary arrives bristling with a wealthy suite of recent powertrain tech, together with electrified hybrid fashions with and with no plug. The brand new Escape line — higher often called the Kuga in Europe — will even deliver with it a cluster of recent comfort and security tech, all aimed toward taking up phase titans just like the Honda CR-V, Nissan Rogue and Toyota RAV4, in addition to charismatic outsiders such because the Mazda CX-5 and Subaru Forester. In its higher trims, Ford even hopes to choose off a number of luxurious nameplate buyers who may in any other case be looking for modestly specced fashions sporting premium badges.
Beginning with its most blatant new improvement, styling, the 2020 Escape’s streamlined look is the direct results of how overcrowded the compact crossover scene is changing into. The dramatic ramping up of phase entrants has meant report trade income, however some firms, like Ford, see darkish clouds on the horizon.
With so many choices headed to market, Blue Oval execs are nervous that fashions within the Escape’s phase are vulnerable to being commoditized. That is when the whole lot begins to look the identical, and the place consumers gravitate to no matter product is most cost-effective, spurring incentive wars and killing revenue margins within the course of. As Hau Thai-Tang, Ford’s govt vice chairman of product improvement and buying, instructed the media in a sneak-peek session in late March, “The important thing to avoiding the tyranny of commoditization is to have a really compelling, differentiated place within the market.”
The markedly extra natural look of the 2020 Escape is due to this fact one half of a daring new two-pronged technique Ford will use to assault what has turn into one of many trade’s most necessary segments.
The 2020 Ford Escape’s new look is sleeker and extra car-like.
Ford
Child Bronco brother
As a bookend to this slipperier, extra fashionable 2020 Escape design, Ford has confirmed that it plans to launch a brand new companion mannequin with way more conventional SUV proportions and angle. The unnamed mannequin, recognized colloquially because the “Child Bronco,” is slated to be revealed later this yr. It is anticipated to function higher experience top, a extra upright greenhouse and elevated off-road functionality, all whereas sharing most of its underpinnings with this new Escape.
The thought is that this thriller SUV will attraction to the rough-and-tumble outdoorsy varieties who may in any other case cross-shop a Jeep Cherokee, whereas the sleeker Escape will seem to metropolis dwellers by providing a extra modern aesthetic. By not releasing middle-of-the-road designs, Ford believes it will possibly faucet into extra passionate consumers who’re wiling to pay extra, thus avoiding commodification and the poor resale values that have a tendency to return with it.
Mockingly, the unique 2001 Escape took an identical design method, wanting as boxy and vertical as a conventional body-on-frame SUV. You might recall that Jeep itself tried an identical technique within the mid-to-late 2000s with the unique Compass and Patriot SUVs. That effort wasn’t notably profitable, principally as a result of neither of the autos have been notably competent. The compact SUV phase might also not have been massive sufficient to maintain two such fashions at the moment, both.
Ford has already teased the “Child Bronco” that can share mechanicals with the 2020 Escape.
Ford
In any case, this fourth-gen Escape’s urbanized, decrease, wider and longer look will not attraction to everybody, and that is on goal. The brand new design is a good distance from the boxy and upright conventional SUV look of the first- and second-gen Escape, and it is truly completely different from the outgoing iteration, which has been on sale because the 2013 mannequin yr.
Ford claims the brand new design’s face is impressed by as we speak’s Mustang and even just a little little bit of the GT supercar in its decrease fascia. To my eyes, the latter assertion specifically takes greater than a little bit of creative license. To me, the 2020 Escape appears decidedly carlike from most views — extra so than absolutely anything in its class. Actually, if somebody instructed me this was the Focus Lively softroader we have been alleged to get earlier than Ford took a cleaver to its future North American automobile plans, I might’ve believed them. None of that is to say that the Escape is a bad-looking automobile, simply that it is catering to a considerably completely different purchaser. What’s extra, with Ford now sadly having discontinued the Focus within the US and with the Fusion sedan quickly to depart, the Escape’s hatchback-like appears could present a palatable approach to preserve prospects preferring conventional passenger vehicles within the Blue Oval fold.
Energy(prepare) performs
Beneath the brand new pores and skin of this Louisville, Kentucky-built crossover SUV, there is a new platform designed with electrification in thoughts. The lion’s share of 2020 Escapes will doubtless depart sellers working on simply three cylinders: There is a new 1.5-liter turbocharged I3 customary on S, SE and SEL trims. The brand new engine is estimated to provide 180 horsepower and 177 pound-feet of torque, albeit working on 93-octane gas. Paired with a compulsory eight-speed automated transmission, this engine can tow 2,000 kilos, however extra remarkably, it will possibly truly run on simply two cylinders to save lots of gas.
In an attention-grabbing strategic transfer, Ford will truly make a brand new fourth-gen hybrid powertrain customary on SE Sport and Titanium fashions, although the latter will even be obtainable with a gas-only 2.Zero-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder.
A brand new rotary shifter controls the eight-speed automated in fuel fashions, or a CVT in hybrid trims.
Nick Miotke/Roadshow
The hybrid depends on an Atkinson-cycle 2.5-liter 4 paired with an digital repeatedly variable transmission for optimum effectivity. Ford quotes whole system output at 198 horsepower in front-wheel-drive spec, and says that an electric-only prime velocity of 85 miles per hour is feasible earlier than the interior combustion engine kicks on.
That aforementioned 2.Zero-liter turbo engine that is elective on the top-trim Titanium mannequin is estimated at a wholesome 250 horsepower and 275 pound-feet of torque (additionally on high-octane gas). Ford says the brand new powertrain will make the fourth-gen Escape about 10 p.c faster than the 2019 mannequin with the two.0T. It is also rated to tow a class-competitive Three,500 kilos, sufficient for a trailer toting a few ATVs or a small outboard boat.
A brand new plug-in hybrid mannequin arrives subsequent spring.
Ford
A brand new, smarter all-wheel-drive system is elective, and it options an axle disconnect function for improved gas financial system when the additional traction is not known as for. Between its slippery bodywork, smarter AWD system and diminished weight of round 200 kilos throughout the board, gas financial system might see a significant improve on this technology, however we’ll have to attend till the EPA estimates are launched.
For the primary time, the Escape will even get a plug-in hybrid possibility, a system derived from that of as we speak’s Fusion PHEV. For this front-wheel-drive-only mannequin, Ford is quoting 209 whole system horsepower, however the automaker says it is focusing on an electric-only vary of 30-plus miles. The Escape Plug-In Hybrid’s lithium-ion battery will energy up on a Stage 2 charger in round Three.5 hours, or 10 to 11 hours when plugged into a traditional 110-volt Stage 1 outlet. Ford is focusing on a bladder-busting whole vary of over 550 miles for this powertrain.
Learn extra: Historical past of the Ford Escape
The brand new Escape has gone on a food plan, with most fashions weighting about 200 kilos lower than earlier than.
Ford
Fashionable cabin
If there’s one primary space the place the outgoing third-gen Escape was feeling its age, it was the within. This new 2020 Ford Escape appears prefer it’ll rectify that in a rush, with higher supplies, a extra modern aesthetic and gobs of obtainable new tech. These new options embody an ordinary rotary shifter, an elective all-digital, 12.Three-inch reconfigurable gauge cluster (with minimalist calm mode), and a drive mode selector (Regular, Eco, Snow and Sand, Sport and Slippery). Different obtainable niceties embody USB-A, USB-C and wi-fi charging, heated seats and steering wheel, in addition to a 6-inch head-up show that makes use of less expensive retractable combiner tech. Lamentably absent from the choices record are cooled seats, a 360-degree surround-view digicam, and a rear-seat reminder.
You are wanting on the cabin of a top-flight Titanium mannequin.
Nick Miotke/Roadshow
Most fashions could have Sync Three infotainment with an Eight-inch touchscreen, together with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility. A 575-watt, 10-speaker B&O premium audio system is elective, too. Out there FordPass Join permits for a collection of distant instructions by your telephone, together with distant begin, distant locking and automobile diagnostics.
Regardless of a decrease total top, Ford says the Escape’s cabin and cargo house have each improved, suggesting that the brand new mannequin’s seats could sit barely nearer to the ground than earlier than. A brand new sliding second row permits for the prioritization of individuals or issues and the corporate notes that a full-size canine crate can now be accommodated within the cargo maintain. Cargo house is listed at 37.5 cubic toes in EcoBoost fashions or 34.four cubic toes for hybrid variants. With the second row seats folded, house expands to 65.four cubic toes (60.Eight for electrified fashions). These are class-competitive figures, although it is value noting that almost all rivals supply extra max cargo capability.
(To dig into extra by-the-numbers comparisons with key rivals, the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, Chevy Equinox and Nissan Rogue, try our breakdown right here.)
A 12.Three-inch digital gauge cluster and retractable combiner-style HUD show are elective.
Ford
All 2020 Escapes will ship with Ford Co-Pilot360, the Blue Oval’s title for a collection of superior driver help methods together with blind-spot help, lane-keep help, automated emergency braking and automated excessive beams. Adaptive cruise management and lane-centering tech shall be elective, as will a brand new one-touch self-park system and Evasive Steering Help.
Avoiding ‘the dreaded C Phrase’
Will the brand new 2020 Escape efficiently keep away from what Ford’s Thai-Tang known as “The dreaded C phrase” — commoditization? Will it’s a giant success? It’s going to take some time to know for positive. Like its predecessors, the brand new Escape appears destined to promote a whole bunch of hundreds of items yearly, however the high quality of the gross sales themselves, as measured by incentives and precise transaction costs, would be the solely approach to inform if Ford’s effort to reenvision and reposition this mannequin has been profitable.
The 2020 Ford Escape is slated to reach in sellers nationwide this fall, however if you need a plug-in hybrid mannequin, you will have to attend till spring of subsequent yr.
Pricing particulars
For starters, the bottom 2020 Ford Escape S will begin at $24,885 ($780 greater than 2019), plus $1,095 for supply. Sure, the brand new mannequin is costlier, nevertheless it additionally options extra customary tools, together with the aforementioned Ford Co-Pilot360 security gear, wifi hotspot, drive modes and so forth.
The Escape’s hottest trim, SE, will begin at $27,095 plus supply, a rise of simply $595. The SE trim contains necessary ‘livability’ enhancements like an eight-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, adaptive cruise management, 17-inch wheels and LED accents.
Stepping as much as the SE Sport ($28,255 plus supply) provides the bigger hybridized 2.5-liter engine paired to a CVT, plus the digital gauge cluster, black exterior detailing, and so forth.
The second-highest-trim stage, Escape SEL, begins at $29,255 plus supply, $810 greater than final yr. For that outlay, you get 18-inch alloys, a heated leather-based steering wheel, hands-free foot-activated liftgate, sport seats with reminiscence operate, fog lamps and backup sensors, amongst different options.
For those who actually really feel like forking out, the top-shelf Ford Escape Titanium will run you $33,400 earlier than vacation spot charge and choices. It comes customary with the two.5-liter hybrid powertrain, and is distinguished by options like 19-inch wheels, B&O premium audio, laminated glass, voice-activated navigation, leather-based seats and lane-centering and park help ADAS options.
Sadly, pricing has not but been revealed for the Escape’s late-availability plug-in hybrid fashions.
It’s going to doubtless be a number of months earlier than we get the possibility to drive the all-new 2020 Ford Escape household. For now, try our spec comparability with different widespread compact crossover SUVs beneath, and examine again right here at Roadshow for all the newest information and evaluations.
Learn extra: 2020 Ford Escape vs. Chevy Equinox, Honda CR-V, Nissan Rogue and Toyota RAV4
Ford’s new Escape is not wanting again.
Ford
Initially revealed April 2.
Replace, April 18: Refreshed for New York Auto Present debut with new footage from the present ground.
Replace, Might 29: Complete pricing and have info added.
