The Ford Escape has always been a good choice for young families or empty nesters who want a vehicle equally suited for commuting and communing with nature. Now Ford has added a gas-electric hybrid, just in time to ride the coattails of surging interest in eco-friendly vehicles. Identical to its conventional sibling on the outside, the Escape Hybrid is propelled by a combination electric motor and gasoline engine. Ford touts it as the cleanest, most fuel-efficient SUV ever.
But this hybrid doesn't come cheap. The front-wheel- drive version starts at $26,970, and you'll pay $28,595 for all-wheel drive. That's about $3,300 more than the V6 gasoline version and $7,000 more than the basic four-cylinder. Too bad the hybrid doesn't have enough green power to justify the premium.
Quest for fuel economy
I spent a day with the new Escape, in search of the 35 to 40 miles per gallon in city driving that Ford promises. The Escape Hybrid actually gets better mileage in city traffic than it does out on the highway (estimates are about 30 mpg for highway driving) because the electric motor usually operates solo when the car is idling and at speeds up to 25 mph. Monitoring the mileage is easy with the optional navigation system, which shows both instant fuel economy and the average mileage for the previous 15 minutes.
Alas, my average came in below 25 mpg, probably because at the beginning of my test drive the gas engine was running even at low speeds. Engineers tell me that was to warm up the engine. When the electric motor operated alone (with a disconcerting quiet), my average fuel economy climbed. Gas mileage also improves if you refrain from punching the gas pedal. I admit I experimented with a few zero-to-45 runs to see if the hybrid really does accelerate as fast as the regular Escape's peppy, 200-horsepower V6 gas engine. It comes close.
Ford is covering the battery and all other hybrid components for at least eight years or 100,000 miles. (The bumper-to-bumper warranty is three years or 36,000 miles.) And, by midsummer, nearly 2,500 Ford dealerships had been certified to sell and service the Escape Hybrid.
The high price of a green SUV
At $2 a gallon for regular gas, and assuming you drive 15,000 miles a year (with a light foot), you could save about $600 a year in fuel costs compared with the V6 gasoline version and $300 compared with the four-cylinder model -- less if gas prices fall. Ford expects to build just 1,600 Escape Hybrids a month, so competition for early models is stiff. That means chances for scoring a great deal fall in the slim-to-none range. Demand for Toyota's cultish Prius hybrid has led to months-long waiting lists and dealer markups of as much as $8,000. On the bright side, Ford is discouraging dealer markups, says Mary Ann Wright, director of Ford's hybrid programs. And Uncle Sam offers a $1,500 tax deduction for hybrids purchased this year.
But that's not enough payback to justify the high cost, even if you crank in the feel-good factor. If you want a small sport utility vehicle, take a look at the four-cylinder, internal-combustion-only Escape. Like the rest of the line, its design was updated this year. The new 2.3-liter engine produces 20% more horsepower than last year's version. In my commute, power was more than adequate to zip through traffic. The four-cylinder model with manual five-speed transmission gets a respectable 24 mpg in the city and 29 on the highway. You may spend $25 a month more at the gas pump, but you'll save about $7,000 at the dealer.
Got a question? Ask Mark by e-mail, or write to him at 1729 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20006.
MAGAZINE
