DETROIT: Ford Motor Co. is updating the small Escape SUV with new technology and styling, after years of declining sales and ambivalence for the model expressed earlier this year by chief executive officer Jim Farley.
The 2023 Escape coming early next year will feature bigger dashboard touchscreens and a new sporty ST trim, the automaker said.
It will continue to offer the only plug-in hybrid option in the Ford-brand lineup.
Prices will range from US$27,500 (RM131,000) to US$38,500 (RM183,000).
Ford marketing officials say the Escape lives on because it appeals to an urban and female audience that isn’t attracted to the off-road-oriented Bronco Sport.
They also say Ford needs to remain a player in the compact crossover segment, which accounts for 22% of the US auto market and is now dominated by the Toyota RAV-4 and Honda CR-V.
The Escape once outsold those models and ranked as the company’s No. 2 vehicle. But sales have fallen by more than half in the last five years and the Escape now faces competition in its own showroom from the rugged and popular Bronco Sport small SUV.
"There’s plenty of demand, and the segment’s huge,” Craig Patterson, Ford’s utility marketing manager, said in an interview. "We’re not going to be able to serve that with just one vehicle.”
Farley raised questions about the Escape’s future in June while speaking at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference.
Asked by an analyst how the company will manage the decline of its internal-combustion engine models as electric vehicles rise in popularity, Farley lumped the Escape with the Edge crossover utility, which Ford is phasing out by mid-decade.
"You cannot ask everyone to do everything,” Farley said.
"We’re going to have passion brands. We’re not going to have commodity products like Edges and Escapes.”
Ford argues the Escape isn’t a commodity product and has a particular appeal to buyers looking for a sleek, lower-riding SUV with premium touches.
Patterson blamed the falling sales on a lack of computer chips, which has hurt the entire industry for two years.
"There’s this commoditised middle of the market that many of our competitors compete in, and we wanted to have two distinct points of view,” Patterson said.
"What we’re really targeting is the growth audiences of millennial women, first-time buyers, Hispanics and African Americans.”
The ST Line.
Ford expects as much as half of the Escape’s sales to come from the new ST model, which features a black mesh grille, large rear spoiler and an option for a "coast to coast” LED light bar connecting the headlights.
The automaker also is doubling the size of the standard dashboard touchscreen to 8 inches and offering a 13.2-inch screen as an option.
The hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions of the Escape are each estimated to go more than 500 miles on a tank of gas.
The plug-in can be driven exclusively on electric power for up to 60km, and the driver can choose four different settings for electric and gasoline power.
Sticking with the Escape — despite US sales falling to 145,415 last year from 308,296 in 2017 — is the right business decision, said David Whiston, analyst with Morningstar Inc. in Chicago.
Unllike sedans, which Ford dropped, small SUVs are still moneymakers.
"It’s one thing to walk away from the sedan segment because of a lack of profitability,” Whiston said.
"But you don’t want to be walking away from compact crossovers because there’s a lot of good volume there and there’s good profit, too.”
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