- Ford dealers got a glimpse of an entry-level SUV set to arrive in 2029 at a dealer event last week, according to a report from Automotive News.
- The mockups showed a boxy, wide vehicle similar to the first-generation Ford Escape, and the vehicle will reportedly be sold as both a hybrid and a nonhybrid.
- The small SUV is expected to start at around $25,000 and go on sale in 2029.
Ford executives gave dealers a brief look into the Blue Oval's future product development, including an early concept of a $25,000 SUV, at a recent dealer event in Las Vegas. A report from Automotive News says attendees were shown a video that featured early mockups of a boxy SUV that's slated to become Ford's most affordable vehicle toward the end of the decade.
This SUV is notably not set to ride on Ford's Universal EV platform, which is what will form the basis for the upcoming $30,000 Ford Fathom truck. Instead, the SUV will come with both hybrid and nonhybrid powertrains. It's expected to slot in below the Maverick, which currently holds down the bottom of Ford's lineup at just under $30,000.
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The report says the sketches shown in the video were still in the very early stages of design, and that they mainly served to offer a general idea of the vehicle's size and proportions. A dealer told AN that the mockups seemed reminiscent of the first-generation Ford Escape, and that the vehicle looked "boxy and wide." Most of its features, including the name, are unknown.
Though the Escape ended its tenure as a compact SUV similarly sized to the Honda CR-V, Mazda CX-50, and Ford Bronco Sport, the first-generation Escape was reasonably smaller. If the new vehicle does end up sporting early Escape-like proportions, it would likely fall in line with subcompact SUVs like the Chevrolet Trax, Mazda CX-30, and Kia Seltos, which are all priced well under $30,000. Should the new Ford sit with the rest of the subcompacts, its $25,000 price tag would fall roughly in the middle of its segment.
Dealers told AN that the video at the event showed only very early sketches of the vehicle’s progress, which seems to signify there's still a lot of work to be done before it's ready to hit the road in prototype form. A production date wasn't announced, but the AN report says an unnamed hybrid crossover is scheduled to begin assembly in 2029 at the Hermosillo Assembly Plant in Mexico.
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Alayna Wilkening grew up reading motorsport magazines and following her grandpa around his Chevrolet dealership's showroom floor. In true Hoosier fashion, her first car was a hot pink custom cardboard "Fiero-vette" for her kindergarten Kindy 500 race. She now autocrosses a 1994 Miata with her dad, which she learned to drive the night before her first event. Alayna went to Indiana University and graduated with a degree in journalism and a minor in graphic design. As a testament to her great taste in cars, her first real one was a metallic orange 2007 Chevy HHR, which she lovingly called "The Dumptruck."