Having a lot of SUVs in your showroom enables you a certain degree of freedom, at least it does over at Ford. Take the popular compact SUV class: While most automakers are going for an increasingly rugged look — witness the latest Honda CR-V, which Honda says is boxier and more butch-looking — Ford has gone the other way with the 2023 Ford Escape. It’s sleeker, more carlike and even has a new trim series meant to make it even more carlike, the ST-Line.
Ford can do this because sitting next to the Escape in the showroom, on the same chassis and using the same powertrains, are the Bronco Sport SUV (boxy, rugged, off-road capable) and Maverick pickup truck (boxy, rugged, cargo and towing champ). This means the Escape can be Ford’s on-road, urban runabout champ, eschewing the wilds in favor of the Walmart — which is exactly what Escape buyers want, according to Ford. And the changes wrought for the ‘23 model year, in which Ford is offering a mildly updated, refreshed Escape with a couple of style and content changes, are geared to help it further its freeways-over-fields preference.
The Family Look
The styling changes to the ‘23 Escape are minimal but meaningful: The new front end is the biggest change, leaving behind the “poor man’s Porsche Macan” look for one that more closely resembles the current Ford corporate family. There are elements of the new Mustang in the front end, and if you squint, you can see what the Fusion might have looked like had it continued in our market. The Escape is sold in Europe as the Kuga, so its more European-focused style makes sense.
The new ST-Line vehicles make that on-road orientation even more evident thanks to a monochromatic look that banishes shiny chrome in favor of black or body-color trim. While we’re not sad to see gray body moldings go away, the black wheel trend is hopefully not far behind — we dig the uniform color look of the ST-Line, but black wheels are starting to get trite as a styling trend. Thankfully, there are some other, equally attractive options. Overall, the styling changes are attractive even if they’ll only really be noticed by people turning in an older model; there are no wild deviations from the Ford norm or even the segment’s overall shape more generally. The biggest difference in styling is really between the Bronco Sport and the Escape; it’s hard to believe they share common underpinnings.
The Underbody Bits Don’t Change
What we see here is what the auto industry calls a “mid-cycle refresh” for the Escape, meaning that it’s not a complete redesign or update of the vehicle, just a few changes to keep its technology up to date and styling fresh. That means powertrains carry over unchanged: Two gas engine options are the same as before, a surprisingly spunky turbo 1.5-liter three-cylinder making 180 horsepower, a more powerful turbo 2.0-liter four-cylinder making 250 hp or a choice of two hybrid systems: one making 200 hp or a plug-in version with 37 miles of electric range making 210 hp.
None of that is new. Neither is the suspension or any of the other greasy bits, and that’s OK. Our only complaint about the Escape’s powertrain comes in the PHEV version, which had an all-electric mode that didn’t keep it in EV operation. We’ll have to see if the new model year has resulted in any change to that strategy; Ford engineers admitted to us that they’d received some criticism for the operation of their PHEV, which many drivers felt was too eager to randomly fire the engine despite the driver selecting EV Now mode.
Upgrades to the Insides
What has changed for 2023 are some elements of the cabin. The Escape’s surprising spaciousness remains (one other distinction over the shorter Bronco Sport), with plenty of room in front or back seats even for bigger passengers with longer legs. Headroom also remains plentiful even with the optional panoramic moonroof taking a few inches out of the overhead airspace. Materials quality hasn’t changed much either — it’s acceptable for a vehicle in this price class but isn’t going to win any luxury awards. There’s a lot of hard plastic trim, and despite the appearance of some genuinely good-looking faux woodgrain on some models, it’s not class-leading in terms of materials niceness.
The new ST-Line spiffs things up with red stitching everywhere, black trim and a chunky flat-bottom steering wheel that feels good in the hands. The red stitching also livens up what would otherwise be a dark and dour interior; the optional Space Gray interior on models that are not ST-Line trims is also a good way to lighten up the cabin in a welcoming way.
The biggest change for the interior would be the addition of a new 13.2-inch diagonal touchscreen planted in the middle of the dash like someone stapled an iPad to the console. We’re not angry, though, as it’s big, bright, clear and runs Ford’s excellent Sync 4 multimedia system, which allows for a high degree of customization to suit an owner’s taste. The bit that makes us wince is Ford moving the climate controls to the touchscreen. All of the climate control hard buttons are gone on certain models. They never leave the bottom of the touchscreen, however, so they’re always available, and it did allow Ford to relocate the stop-start button for the Escape to a much more accessible position. At least the new climate controls are mounted much higher up, at the bottom of that screen, so they actually should be easier to use than the old ones. We’ll see how easy it all is to operate when we get behind the wheel, out on the street, early in 2023.
Overall, the changes to the ‘23 Escape are mild but meaningful. If you’re never planning on going off-road (which most SUV drivers don’t), then opting for a crossover-style SUV that maximizes its on-road orientation makes sense. For those buyers, the Escape looks set to continue to be popular.
Related Video:
Keyword: 2023 Ford Escape Up Close: More of What Escapists Want