2014 Beijing: Ford Escort, A Re-skinned Focus, Only For China

The Escort nameplate will be returning to the market by 2015, as a China-only C-segment sedan by Ford. Seen is Ford's answer to bridge the gap between a Ford Fiesta Sedan and a Ford Focus.

Although the Escort's rear-section may suggest that it is a derivative from a Fiesta, the Escort is actually a Ford Focus underneath. And no, Ford is not recycling an outdated platform to produce a low-cost car.

LiveLifeDrive managed to catch-up with Trevor Worthington, the Vice-President of Product Development for Asia Pacific at Ford Motor Company.

"The compact car market in China is worth about 5.5 million cars a year. That's more than the total car market of UK and Germany combined. So you will see the segment is split into several sub-segments within it.

"Our research tells us that there is a demand for a car like the Escort," he said.

Ford's press release also says the company expects China's compact car market to grow to 7.2 million cars by 2017, bigger than Germany, the UK and France combined!

When asked about the Escort is using the underpinnings, Worthington stressed it is using the same C1 platform as the current generation Ford Focus.

"The current Focus uses an updated platform from the previous generation model, it is our global C-platform," he said.

We also asked him if there are any plans to introduce the Escort to other markets outside of China, to which he answered "Presently the Escort is only planned for China, but the model meets all of our global standards so it can be sold in other overseas markets (if the need arises)."

The Escort will be powered by a 1.5-litre Ti-VCT engine.

The product is co-developed by Ford's product development teams in China and Australia. It will be manufactured by Ford's Changan-Ford joint venture.