2013 Ford Kuga goes in to production

The new (2013) Ford Kuga crossover – which debuted at Geneva in the Spring – has now gone in to production in Spain ahead of first customer car deliveries.

Ford has announced it’s finally started to churn out the new Kuga at its plant in Valencia, and that the Kuga will be heading to Ford’s UK showrooms to get customer cars out in the new year. Despite starting production of the new Kuga, Ford still hasn’t come up with prices for its compact crossover, but says they will be available before the end of the year.

On offer in the new Kuga is a range of new technology including the kick-to-open tailgate, Active Park Assist, Blind Spot Monitoring Torque Vectoring Control, SYNC and the first use of Ford’s EcoBoost engines in the Kuga (although no sign yet that the 1.0 litre EcoBoost will be added to the Kuga).

Engines on offer in the new Kuga will be a 150PS or 180PS version of the 1.6 litre EcoBoost and a 140PS or 163PS version of Ford’s 2.0 litre TDCi Duratorq diesel, 4WD with Ford’s Powershift ‘box is available and all engines manage better than 180g/km emissions.

Ford are planning a full scale assault on the SUV market in Europe and reckon that 10 per cent of all Fords sold in Europe by 2016 will be SUVs of one sort or another, with the Kuga being joined later in 2013 by the Fiesta-based Ford EcoSport.

The 2013 Ford Kuga will be available to order before the end of the year.

By Cars UK