The Ford Kuga upgrade guarantees another three years of operation at the Almussafes plant.

Ford presented a new version of its model Kugawhich guarantees another three years of work at the Valencian Almussafes plant. The news comes as a relief at a time of great uncertainty due to the delay in the arrival at the plant of electric vehicles that the multinational promised a year and a half ago. .

Sources at the plant told El Español-Invertia that the commercial life of this car after its restyling, if it maintains good market reception, it could take about three years. This SUV may even undergo a second redesign in 2027 and extend its production life until 2030.

Ford Almussafes has lost models in recent years. After exhaustion Mondeo, S-Max And Galaxywill also stop production of the van Unite next April.

(Almussafes is asking Ford to produce hybrid vehicles while the company decides to switch to electric vehicles.)

Then you will be left alone with him Kuga, which combines most of the jobs at the plant. Belonging 219 594 cars that the plant assembled in 2023, 148,074 were Kuga67.4% of total production.

The “Made in Spain” SUV has three engine options (petrol, hybrid and PHEV) as well as a new “Active” trim with more rugged styling, Ford said this Wednesday. Orders for this model are already available.

As the company clarified, the updated Kuga introduces a new design inside and out with a new Active trim that adds to the Titanium and ST-Line trims, which make the car stronger and safer, while offering greater differentiation between the different trims of the range, with the aim of giving its customers greater flexibility in choice version that best suits their tastes.

“Our new Kuga “Brings to a new level the qualities that delight our customers and which have made it the best-selling plug-in hybrid in Europe for two years running, and its leadership will soon be confirmed in the statistics for 2023,” said the representative of the CEO of Ford Blue Europe. John Williams.

Ford Kuga It was the best-selling model in Spain among PHEVs in 2023, with 4,088 units of this engine registered (+75.8%), surpassing the Lynk & Co 01 in the final month of the year.

Ford has improved the PHEV and Hybrid AWD (FHEV) engines with an automatic transmission. power sharing improved, delivering “important benefits” in terms of performance and towing capacity, for greater versatility, as well as increasing its towing capacity by more than 30%, to 2,100kg.

So Ford Kuga The PHEV combines a 2.5-liter Atkinson cycle gasoline engine, an electric motor, a generator, and a 14.4 kWh lithium-ion battery to achieve 243 horsepower (hp) and a fully autonomous electric range of 60 up to 69 km. .

The Kuga Hybrid, on the other hand, features a self-charging FHEV powertrain that delivers up to 64% pure electric driving power in the city, while combining a 2.5-litre Atkinson petrol engine with an electric drive unit, generator and powertrain. lithium-ion battery.

In addition, Ford also offers a thermal version with a 1.5-liter EcoBoost petrol engine, which produces up to 150 hp and fuel consumption of 6.3-7.2 l/100 km.

New Kuga It features Apple CarPlay and Android Auto on all trims, as well as dual-smartphone connectivity with a 5G modem for super-fast connectivity and seamless service.

Ford has included a new communications and entertainment system, SYNC 4, which has twice the processing power of SYNC 3 and is controlled via a 13.2-inch landscape touchscreen.