WASHINGTON, June 21 (UPI) -- The 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid sport utility vehicle could please both environmentalists and SUV lovers with its high fuel efficiency and low emissions.
The Escape Hybrid, the only hybrid SUV and one of only two such vehicles on the market -- along with the Toyota Prius sedan -- debuted in April and has been attracting consumers that were not traditional Ford buyers, Bill Ford, the company's president and chief executive officer, said at the Escape Hybrid's Washington debut last week.
"The average SUV driver isn't trying to save the environment," Max Martina, managing director of The Alternative Energy Institute in Tahoe City, Calif., told United Press International.
At first people who bought hybrid vehicles were environmentalists, he said, but as gasoline prices have gone up, more consumers have been attracted by the powerplant's fuel efficiency.
Ford and marketing firms have said some automobile shoppers still think hybrid vehicles need to be plugged into electrical outlets overnight, but the Escape's electric engine is charged automatically by its gasoline motor.
The Escape Hybrid offers the same functions, four-wheel drive and cargo room as the Ford Escape SUV. The hybrid technology combines a gasoline engine with an electric motor. The motor can fully power the vehicle up to a speed of 25 miles per hour, then phases out for the engine to take over at higher speeds. The 330-volt, nickel-metal hydride battery that tucks into the rear cargo floor is charged by the gas engine and energy from braking. The gas engine shuts off when the vehicle is coasting or stops.
In a mid-April drive through Manhattan, N.Y., the Escape Hybrid traveled 576 miles for 37 continuous hours on a single, 15-gallon tank of gas. That produced a fuel economy of 38 miles per gallon -- far higher than the 24 mpg of the average vehicle.
The Escape Hybrid offers the greatest benefits in city driving because Ford estimates the electric engine can operate on its own about 40 percent of the time at the low speeds and stop-and-go driving in cities, resulting in an almost 50 percent reduction in CO2 emissions.
With a price tag from $26,970 for front-wheel-drive models and $28,595 for four wheel drive, the hybrid will cost from $2,500 to $3,500 more than a typical vehicle in its class, Martina said. Nevertheless, "It is a huge step forward for the auto industry. I think that the fact that this is the first hybrid SUV is really breaking some new ground," he said.
The auto industry is waiting to gauge the SUV's success to decide whether to put more hybrids on the fast-track in that market, the biggest auto segment in the United States, Martina said.
Hybrid vehicle purchasers currently receive a $1,500 federal tax deduction, but the provision only lowers a person's taxable income and does not give a tax credit, which directly lowers taxes paid, said David Friedman, research director of the Clean Vehicles Program of the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington.
At the Escape Hybrid's Washington debut, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said the Bush administration supports tax credits for hybrid vehicles, which she said will help promote the technology and help ease energy and environmental problems.
Martina noted the tax deduction for hybrids is dropping, however, to only $1,000 next year.
John Tews, spokesman for J.D. Power and Associates, a global marketing and consulting firm in Westlake Village, Calif., said consumer fascination with the operation of hybrid vehicles, combined with the advantages of an SUV, could mean good news for manufacturers.
"As (hybrids) venture in new segments, we see the demand increasing," Tews said.
Tews said 47,000 hybrid vehicles were sold in the United States last year and his firm projects 101,000 will sell this year, 232,000 next year and 442,000 in 2008. He called this the first environmentally conscious opportunity for people who do not want to compromise the convenience of an SUV.
Friedman called hybrids the best energy-alternative vehicles available, with clean-diesel and hydrogen-powered models still far in the future. He said the Escape Hybrid will expand the market for hybrids because most consumers already have decided whether they will buy an SUV before they begin shopping.
"By adding a new hybrid, now you can have an SUV with a fuel economy similar to a compact car," he said.
Friedman said it is important to keep in mind, however, the same fuel economy could be achieved faster and cheaper by improving conventional technology with more efficient engines, transmissions, air dynamics and high-strength materials.
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Elizabeth Suh is an intern for UPI Science News. E-mail [email protected]
