Ford has teased the new 2020 Kuga on its Facebook page in a small, six-second trailer. The SUV will be revealed on April 2 as the third-gen Kuga. For the uninitiated, the Kuga is the European version of the Ford Escape that is sold in the States. It looks like the 2020 Kuga shares a lot of design cues, on the inside as well as the outside, with the new Focus. Will the new Kuga be a unique product or just an amalgamation of Ford's different products?

Will People Accept This Feature Gleefully?

The most interesting thing in the 2020 Ford Kuga is the rotary-knob gear shifter that was also spotted on the Focus. The new trend of replacing the conventional gear lever with the rotary knob gear shifter has also hit this SUV. This setup has been a controversial topic and has mixed opinions from enthusiasts and purists. Other than this, the video shows a quick view of the LED headlights and the Kuga moniker on the boot lid. In fact, the two share the C2 platform as well. The prototypes of the new Focus have been spotted, and we expect the Kuga to bear a lot of resemblance with it.

A Plug-In Hybrid Could Be Make Way Into The New Kuga

There is no news on the third-gen Kuga's drivetrain, but you can expect it to receive the Escape's four-cylinder turbocharged mill. This also means that the Kuga could be mated to the Blue Oval's new eight-speed automatic transmission instead of the current model's six-speed automatic transmission. So, we have a hunch that the new Kuga will most probably be offered with a hybrid powertrain as well.

There are no concrete details about the powertrains yet, but some VIN documents that 'escaped' the secret chambers suggest that the new Escape S will pack a 1.3-liter, three-cylinder Dragon engine in the base trim. It replaces the 1.5-liter EcoBoost mill. As for the top-trim, it will feature the 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine that also powers the Lincoln Corsair. Given that the Escape and the Kuga like sharing things with each other, the European twin may also come with the same engines.

The Kuga Is A Key Product In Ford's Lineup

The Kuga is consistently showing a positive growth year-on-year in Europe. In fact, Ford sold a record 153,359 examples of the Kuga in 2018. You can have them in two- or four-wheel-drive configurations, and they can be mated to a manual or automatic gearbox. Perhaps, this is reason for Kuga's constant growth as it caters to a wide range of customers with varied budgets. The current Kuga starts at £22,490 ($29,250) and tops out at £35,050 ($45,600).

Final Thoughts

The new Kuga will be unveiled at Ford's Go Further event in Amsterdam. Ford will also unveil a new crossover in its European lineup that will be slotted between the EcoSport and the Kuga. Rumor has it that the new crossover could be called Puma. The Kuga has been facing stiff competition in the form of a rather surprising rival, the Jeep Compass. 2018 was a great year for the Jeep product as sales increased by more than five times compared to 2017. Will the new Kuga be able to evade this threat from the unlikely rival? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.

Further reading

Read our full review on the 2018 Ford Kuga.

Read our full review on the 2017 Ford Kuga ST.