China-only Ford Equator Sport SUV Revealed As Escape’s More Rugged Brother

All-new Ford Equator Sport SUV debuts in People’s Republic of China as Escape’s more rugged brother. 

The Equator Sport made its official public debut at the Guangzhou Auto Show as a new rival for the Honda CR-V. 

Ford has partnered with Chinese automaker Jiangling Motors to reveal the all-new Equator Sport, another new model that is planned to be sold exclusively in the People’s Republic.

The Ford Equator Sport made its official public debut at the Guangzhou Auto Show as a new rival for the Honda CR-V and the likes with rugged looks and a spacious interior.

Though the new SUV shares its name with the large three-row Equator unveiled in March this year, Chinese media reports it’s not based on the same bones.

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The Equator Sport has a wheelbase of 2,765 mm (108.85 in), which is 140 mm (5.5 in) shorter than the larger Equator with 2,865 mm (112.8 in).

While mechanically not related, the two SUVs use a very similar design language. The Equator Sport features the same large radiator grille at the front flanked by thin LED headlights with C-shaped DRLs.

The side profile is muscular with wide wheel arches hiding 20-inch wheels and plastic cladding in the lower section of the doors. The rear end is also very similar, though the smaller model doesn’t have a LED stripe connecting the taillights.

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Inside the cabin, there’s room for five passengers, whereas the larger Equator can be had with either six or seven seats. The dashboard design features the same dual-screen layout, though the surrounding trim looks a little less glitzy.

Under the hood is a 1.5-liter turbocharged gasoline engine, which Ford says is brand new and this is its first application in a production model. The peak output of this unit is 170 horsepower (127 kilowatts) and 192 pound-feet (260 Newton-meters) of torque.

It is mated to an automatic transmission, though we don’t know whether it sends power to the front or to all four wheels. The claimed maximum speed is 112 miles per hour (180 kilometers per hour).

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