Ford Escape/Kuga

When we spoke with J Mays about the Vertrek concept car at the 2011 NAIAS in Detroit, he told us "this is about 85 per-cent as the production car will look". On viewing these pictures of the new generation Ford Kuga/Escape, it's clear Ford's chief designer was true to his word.

It's significant for being the first true product of the company's ‘One Ford' strategy, which harmonizes the American, European and Asian operations, developing singular products for the global market. The last generation Escape and Kuga could not have been more disparate in aesthetic; the American Escape following a product-design, rugged SUV aesthetic, while the European Kuga was almost cartoonish in its exaggeration of Ford of Europe's ‘Kinetic design' dynamism.

The car is longer, wider and lower than its predecessors and therefore proportionally much stronger than the outgoing European Kuga, which had a tendency to look overly tall and narrow from some angles. The DRG is instantly recongnisable from the Vertrek, but that said, it lacks the Vertrek concept's exaggerated track and refined lower body area and, as a consequence, looks taller, narrow and less elegant on the evidence of these pictures.

Inside, the design theme is clearly related to the new Focus, with a busy array of intersecting surfaces and an upper-IP infotainment cluster that projects into the cabin. The HMI features an updated version of the controversial myFord Touch interface.

Gallery: Ford Escape

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