Ford Motor Company president and CEO Jim Farley has declared his disdain for ‘two-row crossovers’ – such as the Toyota RAV4, Australia’s best-selling SUV – and has indicated the similarly sized Ford Escape is about to be axed globally.
The Blue Oval brand will use the same Louisville, Kentucky, plant in the US to build a new Ford Ranger-sized dual-cab electric ute from 2027, and it appears the Ford Escape currently made in the same plant will make way for the new model.
“Now is time to change the game once again,” Mr Farley said during the announcement of Ford Universal EV Platform last week.
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“The new pickup, built here in Louisville, is going to cure a lot of problems, like all those generic, two-row crossovers that dominate our industry,” the Ford boss added.
After launching as a cousin to the Mazda Tribute, the Escape eventually moved to the same platform as the Focus small car before being dropped from Ford Australia showrooms after more than two decades on sale Down Under. For many years, it was sold here as the Kuga, as it still is in Europe.
Mr Farley – a self-confessed petrol-head and car enthusiast – previously said the two-row SUV segment didn’t work for Ford, confirming in a previous earnings call that the US automaker would no longer produce vehicles to compete in it.
“We are not going to be playing in the two-row commodity crossover market because that’s – because Ford’s tried that in the ICE [internal combustion engine] business and it didn’t really work out for us,” Mr Farley said at the time.
“We want to play our hand, our strength… commercial, truck, larger vehicles on the category side.”
That’s despite the fact the Puma light SUV – another ‘two-row crossover’ that was dropped from Ford’s Australian lineup, in 2024 – tops the sales charts in the UK, and that the RAV4 was Toyota’s best-selling model in Australia last year, when it threatened to knock off the Ranger for the number one spot overall.
Even in Ford’s home market – where the Ford F-Series full-size pickup was the best-seller, comfortably ahead of the second-placed Chevrolet Silverado – the RAV4 was North America’s third most popular model overall in the first half of 2025.
The RAV4 was one of three ‘two-row’ SUVs in the top 10, including the Honda CR-V in fourth and the Chevrolet Equinox (not available in Australia) in 10th.
The Ford Escape was 24th with 82,589 sales, compared to the RAV4’s 239,451. However, Ford also splits the segment by offering the related Bronco Sport crossover SUV, of which it sold 72,438 examples in the first half of 2025.
Under Mr Farley, who has led Ford since 2020, the automaker dropped the Ford Edge two-row SUV, which was sold in Australia as the Endura between 2018 and 2020.
The Lincoln Corsair – based on the Escape – also appears on borrowed time given it’s also made at the Louisville plant where the new EV pickup will be produced.
The Australian-market Everest – the second-best selling Ford model locally – has five- and seven-seat variants so it technically doesn’t quite fit into the category the Ford boss has been so outspoken about.
The move away from what Mr Farley describes as ‘generic’ crossovers follows his commitment to stop making ‘boring’ cars as the brand focuses on its ‘icons’ such as F-Series, Mustang and Bronco in future.
That also includes – although it’s not yet officially confirmed – a move back towards passenger cars in Europe, where over many decades Ford built a strong reputation among enthusiasts for its sporting versions of the Cortina, Escort, Sierra, Focus and Fiesta, among others.
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