Ford Builds its Last Escape – But What Will Replace it?

The last Ford Escape has rolled off the automaker’s assembly line in Louisville, Kentucky. That leaves a gaping hole in Ford’s line-up. But what will replace it? Headlight.News has the story.

After a 25-year run, the Ford Escape has driven off into the sunset, the automaker building the last of the compact SUVs at a plant in Louisville, Kentucky set to undergo a multi-billion-dollar transformation as Ford prepares to launch its new Universal EV line-up in 2027.

The decision to end production of the Escape took many observers by surprise – and hasn’t necessarily gone down well with dealers considering it was long one of Ford’s best-selling product lines, for years behind only the F-Series pickup family.

The question is what will fill the gap? Or does Ford even need a replacement for Escape? It might already have one, according to Sam Fiorani, lead analyst with AutoForecast Solutions, though an EV alternative is in the works.

A transformational product

Ford was an early player in the “crossover” market, its original Explorer dominating the midsize segment as buyers began switching from passenger cars to utility vehicles. But the Detroit automaker was slow to enter smaller, lower-priced segments, ceding the opportunity to imports like Toyota and Honda, with their RAV4 and CR-V models, respectively.

When Ford finally entered what was then referred to by many as the “cute-ute” market the Escape became its first utility vehicle to be based on a car-like unibody architecture, rather than a body-on-frame platform.

The formula worked well, U.S. sales of the Escape hitting a peak 308,296 in 2018, The automaker also scored with a luxury version, the Lincoln Corsair, as well as versions sold in overseas markets, such as the European Ford Kuga.

A steady decline

But demand began to tumble shortly after Escape set that record. It bottomed out in 2022, during the depths of the COVID recession, at 118,557, and has improved only slightly since then, leaving Ford to start weighing its options. Earlier this year, the automaker said, it would halt production as it entered the 2026 model year.

Part of the problem, analysts contend, is that Escape never built much of a cachet, unlike RAV4 or CR-V. That meant buyers were more likely to demand deals that cut into Escape’s profit margins.

Nonetheless, the SUV has remained popular with dealers. “It’s bread and butter,” Doug North, president of North Bros. Ford in suburban Detroit told Automotive News. “It’s a big seller for us and it’s certainly part of the affordable segment, which we need. It gets new buyers in, and it gives us the ability after a while to move them into an Explorer and keep them in the brand.”

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Ford’s alternatives

Traditionally, one would expect an automaker like Ford to come up with a replacement product when killing off a familiar nameplate, especially one generating well over 100,000 sales annually. For now, at least, that isn’t the case.

But the automaker does have alternatives, said analyst Fiorani, noting that Ford has two “overlapping” product lines that have lately been outselling Escape: the compact Maverick pickup and the Bronco Sport SUV.

“The Bronco Sport is almost the same vehicle and makes more money,” Fiorani said, adding that “dealers will be able to lure buyers” to either Bronco Sport or Maverick once their supply of Escapes runs out.

Universal EV

And there’ll be a third option a couple years from now. The Louisville plant that had assembled Escape and Corsair is set to undergo a $2 billion overhaul to convert it to produce the automaker’s new Universal EV family.

Production will launch there in 2027, the automaker recently announced, starting with a compact pickup. “An electric SUV will follow less than a year after that.”

Ford is betting that it will be able to remain a strong presence in the compact SUV segment by offering both Bronco Sport and a version of the Universal EV – along with two small pickups, the Maverick and an all-electric option.