Ford Escort returns – for China: Shanghai Motor Show

Ford has revealed a new Escort Concept for the Chinese market at the 2013 Shanghai Motor Show as a new compact saloon for the local market.

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It’s more than thirty years since Ford built an Escort saloon (well, unless you count the Ford Orion of the 1980s, which was an Escort with a boot grafted on the back), but it’s back to the future in Shanghai as Ford reveals an Escort Concept to feed the Chinese market.

The Ford Escort Concept has been built by Ford with the aim of taking a sizeable chunk of China’s compact saloon market – estimated at 5.5 million sales a year – and looks remarkably production viable and far from ‘budget’.

Escort is a badge China knows – there are plenty of old Escorts floating around Chinese roads – so it’s a sensible move by Ford to revive a badge that already resonates as a compact, affordable saloon with Chinese car buyers.

This new Escort gets a proper version of Ford’s latest design language – including the Aston Martin grill – and has good lines and strong detail including jeweled headlights with the lucky Chinese ‘8’ discernible ; it looks entirely cohesive and nothing like a Focus with a boot grafted on.

Martin Smith, Ford’s design man, said:

We found a large segment of compact car buyers in China appreciate sophisticated design and want a more spacious family size vehicle. The Ford Escort Concept reflects those desires.

Its roomy interior, attention to detail, and precise and refined surface language really give the concept car its harmonious aesthetics, where desirable is actually attainable.

There seems little chance the new Ford Escort will escape in to Europe from China if (or probably, when) it goes in to production, but with the car market polarizing in to ‘budget’ and ‘premium’ it can’t be ruled out.

Look out for future offerings from Ford in China including the even more budget 2014 Anglia, 2015 Granada (a stretched Mondeo) and the return of the Ford Pop as a Fiesta-based Supermini with room for the Chinese to sit in the back with a tall hat on.