First Drive Review
Cheers swept through the cheap seats four years ago when rookie Billy Ford, brought out of the backfield to lead America's stumbling No. 2 automaker, reaffirmed the company's pledge to lift the fuel economy of its SUV fleet by 25 percent, and do it by 2005.
Then nothing happened. Years went by. Ford had promised a hybrid version of the compact Escape, but the pause button had been pushed on that program so often—or was it the stop button?—that the greenies lost faith completely. They called for a boycott of all Ford products.
Skeptics at the C/D nerve center watched GM send up halfhearted "hybrid" idea cars that surely brought giggles from Toyota and Honda, the experts in the field. Would Ford be a short hitter, too?
Now, for 2005, Ford's play is in motion. We've driven a preproduction Escape hybrid. It's a solid whack into the outfield, the real thing—in engineering parlance, a full "parallel" hybrid. That means the Ford, like the Toyota Prius, can propel itself with its gas engine, or by battery alone, or engine and battery together.
"Okay, but give us the numbers," you say. Sorry, nothing but estimates so far. Certification was to be completed late this summer, just before real production models hit the showrooms. Until then, Ford says "35 to 40" mpg in stop-and-go city driving, and somewhere approaching 30 mpg on the highway.
That metro estimate agrees with our observations from the dashboard computer over an afternoon's drive, which offered too little highway exposure to make a judgment on that task.
All '05 Escapes get a mildly face-lifted nose with fog lights and new quad headlights. The hybrid version is marked by a green-leaf "HYBRID" badge on the front doors and liftgate and by special five-spoke alloy wheels wearing 235/70R-16 all-season tires.
Labels aside, how should hybridness be expressed to the driver? Toyota, Honda, and now Ford have gone separate ways, with Honda having the most involving game-like presence. Ford sticks to simplicity with a bit of genius. Its hybrid gets four silver-faced dials outlined by glittering chrome bezels. On the large tachometer, the needle drops below zero during electric propulsion, to an odd symbol labeled "EV." It's the best short-hand indicator of engine-off "motoring" we've seen.
