Here’s What Will Replace Ford Escape and Lincoln Corsair

Ford plans to scrap two of its more popular SUVs, the Escape and near-twin Lincoln Corsair, as it converts its plant in Louisville, Kentucky to produce a new generation of EVs. But that won’t leave a big gap in the line-up, various sources tell Headlight.News. Here’s what coming to replace the two SUVs.

When Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley announced the $5 billion Universal EV program earlier this month he also revealed that the Detroit automaker was ready to end production of two of its more popular SUVs, the Ford Escape and the similarly sized, but slightly more upscale Lincoln Corsair.

The news took some observers by surprise considering the two SUVs generated about 175,000 sales last year – with demand growing in 2025. But rumors had been circulating for months and Ford needed to empty out its Louisville Assembly Plant to make room for the new line-up it promises will revolutionize EV manufacturing when it comes back online in 2027.

What’s a loyal buyer to do if they still want an Escape or Corsair? The good news is that Ford does have some options, at least for the more mainstream of the two models. And there’ll be even on more choices a couple years from now.

Building up a backlog

For those dead set on buying either the Ford Escape or Lincoln Corsair, the good news is that the automaker will continue running the Kentucky plant flat out until it’s shut down to begin the $2 billion conversion to EVs.

“Production will stop for Escape and Corsair later this year when we start retooling the plant,” Mark Truby, Ford’s head of media relations told journalists. But he also

noted that, “We’re going to have enough inventory to sell Escape and Corsair well into 2026.”

Several insiders told Headlight.News that Ford at one time considered retaining the Corsair, shifting production to its underutilized operations in China already turning out a version of the Lincoln SUV for the domestic market.

Making room

Since its debut back in the 2001 model year, the compact Escape has been a steady source of sales for Ford Motor Co., the automaker delivering 147,000 of them in the U.S. last year – and demand has grew another 10.8% during the first seven months of 2025. (Lincoln, meanwhile, delivered about 27,500 Corsairs last year.)

In today’s market, those are reasonably solid figures, and both products served as entries into the Ford and Lincoln brands, a way to get young buyers in, build loyalty and, eventually, move them up the product ladder to models like the Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator.

But Ford needed to move them out of Kentucky to make room for the new Universal EV project it had quietly been working on for the past three years. During a news conference in Louisville earlier this month, Farley revealed that the plant will be refitted with an entirely new production system merging three “sub-assemblies,” rather than the single moving assembly line that’s been an industry staple since company founder Henry Ford’s day.

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What replaces Escape

When the Louisville plant goes back online in 2027 it will produce a new midsize battery-electric pickup, the revised manufacturing system expected to help Ford meet a “targeted price” of around $30,000. Farley told those attending his news conference that other models will follow, including both two- and three-row SUVs.

The two-row model “won’t directly replace Escape,” Sam Fiorani, lead analyst with AutoForecast Solutions. Instead, he and other sources said, Ford will try to divide and conquer, using a mix of nameplates to keep compact SUV buyers in the fold.

For one thing, he expects Ford to try to “move buyers on a tight budget to the Maverick,” the compact pickup, with its high-mileage hybrid engine, that currently serves as the entry model in the Ford line-up. Additionally, said Fiorani, the automaker  expected to nudge Escape buyers over to the “more modern” Bronco Sport SUV which also would be likely to “make Ford more money than Escape did.”

This is a potentially very effective strategy, agreed Sam Abuelsamid, principal analyst with Telemetry Research, who anticipates. “They might be able to match, or even exceed the total volume” of Escapes Ford currently sells.

Uncertain future for Nautilus

What happens next for Lincoln’s entry model is less certain, according to the sources close to Ford who would discuss future product programs. There is the possibility the brand might simply walk away from the entry-lux segment, but few see that as likely. “That would make no sense at all,” said Fiorani, since it would leave what is an already thin product line with no way to lure in first-time luxury buyers.

Until last year, going with a Chinese-made replacement would have made sense, Fiorani said. But that approach became untenable after former Pres. Joe Biden announced a quadrupling of tariffs on Chinese auto imports. The trade war has only escalated under his successor, Donald Trump.

There is the possibility that Ford could add a more upscale SUV model to Louisville, but that was not in the plan for Louisville, several Ford officials have indicated.

The automaker will have to make a decision soon as it can only keep Corsairs in Lincoln showrooms through sometime next year before the industry backlog its building up finally runs out.