The Escape

The Escape is the badge-enginnered or sister model of the Mazda Tribute and is the first model Mazda has developled jointly with its parent company Ford. It is likely that the Escape will initially be imported as a completely built up unit from Mazda’s Hofu plant in Japan where it is currently being produced. At a later stage, Ford Inida is likely to assemble the Escape at its Maraimalainagar plant, outside Chennai, to take advantage of the lower duty rates on vehicles built fro knocked down kits.
Mazda and Ford are rumoured to be considering the possibility of building the Escape/Tribute at their joint venture Auto Alliance plant in Thailand where the Ranger pick-up is currently being produced. In which case the Auto Alliance plant would be ideally placed to supply Escape kits for assembly in India.
The Escape is a five-seater SUV that competes in International markets against the Honda CR-V and the Toyota RAV-4. It is more compact that the Tata SAfari and comes with two petrol engine options –a 2.0-litre V6 that puts out a thumping 203 bhp and 27.0kkgm of torque. It is likelyl that the Escape will initially come only with the 2 litre petrol option if it is to meet its price target of around Rs 14 lakh. There is no diesel option as yet and this will be a disadvantage in India where UVs are traditionally powered. However when Ford finally launches the Escape chances are that it may pluck out a diesel from its huge engine range and plonk it in the Escape. Sitting on a new generations SUV platform the Escape features an exceptionally rigid body and a new suspension based on Macpherson struts in front and a multi-link set up at the rear.