There has been much activity at the new Ford assembly plant on the Eastern Seaboard. The main product will be the new Ford Focus, which has been a world-wide success. However, there is more than one car that will be built on the Focus platform, and one of those is the 2013 Ford Escape, which will also be built in Thailand.
This new SUV variant was unveiled at Los Angeles motor show in November 2011 – and is scheduled for release in 2013. The vehicle will also receive many of the Focus features, including the parallel park assist system which steers the vehicle in to a parking spot with the driver just giving accelerator and brake inputs.
The new Escape also has new cornering technology to automatically slow the vehicle if entering a corner too fast (Curve Control) or help accelerate through a turn (Torque Vectoring Control).
2013 Ford Escape.
The engine line-up starts with a base model 2.5 liter four cylinder but also includes the 1.6 liter and 2.0 liter turbocharged four-cylinder Ecoboost engines – all mated to a six speed automatic transmission driving the front wheels as standard but with an intelligent all-wheel-drive system as an option.
The rear seats fold flat and the load space has an optional two-position floor which can be configured for either maximum luggage capacity or flat floor.
FoMoCo has understood that to survive in the competitive automotive world, it has to build cars that people ‘want’. I believe the 2013 Escape will be one of those vehicles.
