Ford Escape/Kuga Towing Capacity

You can find 102 different trims/engines for the Ford Escape/Kuga and their corresponding recommended towing capacity.

The years available stretch from 2001 through to 2022 and to view the towing capacity you just click to expand.

The Ford Kuga is a compact crossover SUV created predominantly for the European Market since the year of 2008. Available in front, all or four-wheel drive, the Kuga is known by another name, the Escape in Northern America.

This is not the first Kuga model to be manufactured by Ford, the Mercury Cougar was sold between 1998 – 2002 and it’s unclear whether this was an intentional move or simply a coincidence.

Sales were low in Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian countries, mainly due to the translation of the word Kuga; it means ‘Plague’ and Ford couldn’t out-market the poor name choice.

Built within the Saarlouis plant in Germany, Ford was keen to sell this vehicle as a premier model and so only created upper-class trim levels, the Zetec and Titanium. Sharing similarities with the Focus and the C-Max, the engine offerings were 2.5-liter turbodiesel, 2-liter 134 hp and 2-liter 161 hp.

The second generation was again developed by Ford for the European market in 2012. Due to the company's policy of only creating one globally sold Ford model per district, they championed the Kuga to fit that role.

The Escape took over from the Kuga for its third generation, and was incredibly similar. Unveiled in the Los Angeles Auto Show, the differences were discrete, to include keyless entry with a sensor fitted below the bumper to allow the driver to automatically open the rear door with their foot. The S trim was front-wheel drive, reserving the all or four-wheel drive in SE, SEL and Titanium.

The Kuga suffered a series of serious recalls in America and Canada due to the engine overheating and catching fire. 70,000 1.6-liter engines were initially affected, then later it was reported that an oil and gasoline leak was causing engine fires too, leading to another 160,000 recalls. The third generation debuted in April 2nd 2019 with five engine transmissions and a plug-in petrol-electric hybrid.