Photo: Stefan Baldauf/SB-Medien
When Ford introduced the Oakville, Canada-built Edge to Europe, some people dared to call it a cut-price competitor to the BMW X5. The reasoning didn’t stand, and dwindling sales are testament to how irrelevant the Edge is in this part of the world as far as mid-size crossover utility vehicles are concerned.
The Edge sold 9,882 examples in Europe last year, down from 16,000 in 2017. The story is different in the United States but not optimistic either, with 2018 sales taking a nosedive compared to 2017. Given these circumstances, Ford might be planning to replace the Edge in the Old Continent with a different nameplate.
Automotive News Europe understands that “Ford is working on a number of new SUVs,” including a replacement for the EcoSport that’s made in Craiova, Romania for the European continent. “A new Kuga will follow the debut of the identical Escape scheduled for launch in the U.S. in 2019,” and in addition to the five-seat compact crossover, a seven-seat Grand Kuga is expected to serve as the successor to the Edge.
This is rather curious considering the seven-seat, long-whelbase Edge is available for sale and also manufactured in China. On the other hand, the C2 vehicle architecture-based Kuga will be produced in Valencia, which received investments totaling 750 million euros in the past year and a half.
Importing the Edge from Canada or China versus manufacturing the Grand Kuga in Spain is the sort of comparison that has one possible outcome for Ford of Europe, which is in the middle of restructuring. As far as hearsay goes, this rumor has every chance in the world to turn true by the end of 2019.
There’s no official confirmation in regard to the name of the seven-seat crossover, but Grand Kuga serves as a working title considering the existence of the Grand C-Max and Gran Torino from days long gone. Because it shares the C2 with the 2019 Focus, the third generation of the Kuga (and fourth for the Escape) will be offered with front- and all-wheel drive along with a choice of six- and eight-speed transmission options.
Like the Edge ST in America and Europe, the Kuga ST is expected to drop at some point in the future too. There’s a case to be made for the Kuga RS, but on the other hand, Ford wouldn’t want to cannibalize sales from the Focus RS.
Automotive News Europe understands that “Ford is working on a number of new SUVs,” including a replacement for the EcoSport that’s made in Craiova, Romania for the European continent. “A new Kuga will follow the debut of the identical Escape scheduled for launch in the U.S. in 2019,” and in addition to the five-seat compact crossover, a seven-seat Grand Kuga is expected to serve as the successor to the Edge.
This is rather curious considering the seven-seat, long-whelbase Edge is available for sale and also manufactured in China. On the other hand, the C2 vehicle architecture-based Kuga will be produced in Valencia, which received investments totaling 750 million euros in the past year and a half.
Importing the Edge from Canada or China versus manufacturing the Grand Kuga in Spain is the sort of comparison that has one possible outcome for Ford of Europe, which is in the middle of restructuring. As far as hearsay goes, this rumor has every chance in the world to turn true by the end of 2019.
There’s no official confirmation in regard to the name of the seven-seat crossover, but Grand Kuga serves as a working title considering the existence of the Grand C-Max and Gran Torino from days long gone. Because it shares the C2 with the 2019 Focus, the third generation of the Kuga (and fourth for the Escape) will be offered with front- and all-wheel drive along with a choice of six- and eight-speed transmission options.
Like the Edge ST in America and Europe, the Kuga ST is expected to drop at some point in the future too. There’s a case to be made for the Kuga RS, but on the other hand, Ford wouldn’t want to cannibalize sales from the Focus RS.
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