Ford Kluga SUV
It is no secret that Ford is building a new assembly plant on the Eastern Seaboard to build the new Ford Focus. However, it looks as if FoMoCo may also build the Ford Escape successor alongside, since the two would have much in common from the platform to engines.
Currently the Escape is built in Taiwan and South Africa, but it is hoped locally that the new Thailand plant will get the nod to be the export hub for both these models.
The current Escape is based on the old GF Mazda 626 platform, but the next-generation model will be closely related to the Ford Kuga compact SUV that was first shown at the 2007 Frankfurt motor show and currently built only in Germany.
Ford could export the Kuga with the next-generation Focus, which will also come from Germany for a year after their launch in the third quarter of 2011, while production ramps up at the Thai plant.
