All Systems Go on Ford Hybrid SUV

Gas-stingy, hybrid-powered vehicles are about to go off-road.

Ford Motor Co. plans this summer to become the world’s first automaker to sell a full-powered hybrid sport utility vehicle, one that combines an electric motor and a gas-powered engine to provide increased power with improved fuel economy. Dealers expect the 2005 Escape Hybrid, a four-cylinder, gas-electric version of Ford’s popular mid-size Escape SUV, to show up in their showrooms by August.

Ford has not announced mileage figures for the Escape Hybrid, but early word from company insiders is that it will get 35 to 40 miles per gallon, versus an Environmental Protection Agency rating of 22 mpg city and 25 mpg on the highway for a standard four-cylinder Escape. The hybrid SUV is expected to have a base sticker price of about $27,000, or $3,500 more than a comparable gas-powered Escape.

With a 133-horsepower gas-powered engine and a 94-horsepower electric motor, the Escape -- available in four-wheel and two-wheel drive -- is expected to post acceleration, top speed and hauling capacity equal to a 200-horsepower, V-6 powered gasoline Escape. “It’s a no-compromises hybrid,” said Tom Watson, head of powertrain development for Ford.

The Escape is Ford’s effort to capitalize on the popularity of SUVs and hybrids. American automakers have prospered in SUV sales, but they have ceded the hybrid market to the Japanese.

Even before the recent run-up in gas prices, hybrids had been popular, particularly in California, where the bulk of sales took place. So far, the only full-powered hybrid vehicles available to consumers in the U.S. have been smaller models -- the Toyota Prius sedan, the Honda Civic Hybrid and the two-seat Honda Insight. Last year Toyota Motor Corp. sold 24,627 Priuses and expected sales to hit 40,000 in 2004.

The Japanese are racing to enter the hybrid SUV market as well.

Toyota plans to sell a hybrid-powered Lexus RX 400 luxury SUV this winter, followed next year by a hybrid Toyota Highlander SUV. Toyota has said it will be able to offer hybrid versions of all its vehicles by 2007 if the demand is there.

Honda Motor Co. also plans more hybrids, with a six-cylinder Accord sedan scheduled to hit dealerships this summer, and its rival Nissan Motor Co. will have an Altima hybrid sedan ready in 2005.

Among U.S. carmakers, General Motors Corp. already is selling Chevy Silverado pickups with a so-called mild hybrid system that enables the gas engine to shut off at stop signs, but doesn’t permit all-electric operation. Some critics have lampooned GM’s first passenger hybrid because it improves gas mileage only by a couple of miles per gallon. GM won’t have a full-powered hybrid vehicle until 2007.

Other American hybrids scheduled to be introduced in the next few years are a Dodge Ram pickup, a Mercury SUV and a mid-sized sedan from Ford.

Being first to market with a true SUV hybrid is important to Ford, which has come under fire from environmental groups for its reliance on gas-guzzling large pickups and sport utilities.

Ford Chairman William Clay Ford Jr. last year reneged on a 2001 promise to improve fuel economy in his firm’s truck fleet 25% over the first half of the decade. New figures from the EPA show that average fuel economy across Ford’s fleet of light-duty vehicles for 2004 is the worst of the major carmakers, at 18.8 mpg.

“It’s ridiculous for Bill Ford to portray his company as an environmental leader because of the hybrid Escape,” said Russell Long, executive director of Bluewater Network, a San Francisco-based environmental group. “Ford’s new vehicles create more global warming pollution than any major auto company.”

Not all environmentalists think Ford’s hybrid is more hype than promise. “We think the Escape Hybrid will be welcome news for SUV drivers who are scratching their heads in dismay as they go to the pumps in California,” said Jason Mark, Berkeley-based director of the Union of Concerned Scientists’ clean vehicles program.

Ford expects to sell only about 20,000 Escape Hybrids a year, versus 165,000 conventional Escapes and almost 1 million F-150 pickups a year. But it should help polish the company’s tarnished “green” credentials, said David Cole, director of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Early signs are that the Escape Hybrid will be a hot commodity locally, at least initially. Ford dealers are fielding a steady stream of calls and some are already taking deposits.

Bert Boeckmann, owner of Galpin Ford in North Hills, said he had 80 customers on a waiting list for the hybrid SUV. Ford is expected to allot only about 1,000 Escapes to its California dealers for 2004, he said. “If I had the supply I could sell 500 of them just from this store,” he added.

There has been some controversy, however, among consumer advocates because although hybrids are more environmentally friendly, in real-world use the vehicles don’t match their fabled fuel economy. The EPA rates the 2004 Toyota Prius at 60 mpg city and 51 mpg on the highway. But Consumer Reports found that the Prius got only 44 mpg in combined city and highway driving.

Still, interest in all types of hybrids has been climbing with the run-up in gasoline prices across the nation, said Jesse Toprak, market analysis director of auto shopping service Edmunds.com.

Those who have driven the Escape Hybrid say it is pleasantly silent at stoplights when the gas engine shuts down. Then there is an almost imperceptible whine of the electric motor as the SUV reaches speeds of up to 25 mph before the gas engine kicks in.

From the outside the hybrid model looks similar to the regular Escape SUV. One difference is that the hybrid’s battery pack, installed under the cargo area floor, adds 200 pounds to the vehicle’s weight, but performance doesn’t suffer and the cargo room is almost the same.

All this prompted La Habra Heights residents Edwin and Judy Roos to put down a deposit on an Escape Hybrid at the beginning of the year, before fuel prices began climbing.

The gas mileage is a bonus, said Edwin, a retired aerospace engineer.

The Rooses -- she’s a retired aerospace industry mathematician -- think hybrid technology “represents a good technical step,” Edwin said. But they didn’t want a compact hybrid car.

The couple have a 1.5-acre avocado and citrus orchard and wanted a full-size vehicle “with the capacity to haul a lot of stuff,” he said. That’s the dictionary definition of an SUV, so they decided to wait for Ford’s hybrid to roll off the assembly line.