Ford Escape Hybrid Begins Production

The Escape Hybrid is Detroit's First HEV

Last Thursday, Ford's first gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle (HEV) rolled off the production line, but it wasn't the tiny, tinny

Bill Ford and Charlie Hoskin unveil the new 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid, Detroit's first HEV. (Photo: Ford Motor Company of Canada)

econobox that most associate with HEVs, but rather the world's first hybrid sport utility.

The relatively conventional looking Titanium Green 2005 Escape Hybrid 4x4 eased off the line with Ford Chairman and CEO Bill Ford and Charlie Hoskin of the United Auto Workers National Ford Department behind the wheel. Also present at the celebratory occasion was Bob Holden, Missouri Governor, and the plant's workers.

The introduction of the hybrid Escape couldn't come at a better time for Ford. North America's SUV boom continues, and the demand for gasoline-electric vehicles is greater than ever. The Escape Hybrid is only vehicle sold in North America that can tap into both of market segments simultaneously, that is until the Lexus RX 400h arrives for luxury buyers soon.

Will the Lexus arrive in dealerships before Ford's SUV and steal the blue oval's "first HEV SUV" thunder? Not too likely.

Escape Hybrid proved its efficiency by lapping Manhattan on a single tank of gas, a feat only possibly due to the Escape HEV's electric assist. (Photo: Ford Motor Company of Canada)

Recently, Toyota announced that the demand for its second-generation Prius 5-door is so high that it had to scale up production by fifty percent, which some automotive market analysts have said will effectively delay the production and introduction of the first-announced Lexus RX400H hybrid SUV to early next 2005.

Although hybrids have been on our roads for about five years, Ford isn't late to the game by any means. Its Escape Hybrid is only the fourth vehicle to obtain HEV status and is North America's first production hybrid vehicle. It differs from previous entries, such as Honda's radical two-seat Insight and Toyota's popular family-size Prius, by building the advanced technology into an ordinary but established vehicle, similarly to Honda's Civic Hybrid. It differs even further due to its extremely versatile SUV layout.