Automobile Blog

Ford E85 Escape Hybrids

Ford E85 Escape Hybrids will be delivered to select fleet customers in six states, staking Ford’s claim to another important industry first. These are the world’s first hybrid vehicles capable of operating on blends of fuel containing as much as 85 percent ethanol. Ethanol is a renewable fuel that can be produced from American-grown corn or sugar beets. The E85 Escape Hybrid produces about 25 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than a gasoline-fueled Escape Hybrid. It also runs on a completely renewable fuel, which can help reduce this nation’s dependence on imported oil. If all of the more than six million flexible fuel vehicles now on America’s highways operated on E85, more than 3.6 billion gallons of gasoline could be displaced a year.

For its part, Ford has committed to making half of its annual vehicle production capable of running on alternative fuels by 2012. Ford Escape Hybrid appears a little more formidable as a sport utility, feels comfortable in the driver’s seat and is quieter inside than in the previous years. The only clue I had to the size of the engine (without reading the paperwork) was the four pistons on the display of where the power was coming from: the electric motors, the gasoline engine or both. The Escape Hybrid has a continuously variable transmission, but without belts, because the electric motors do the variable duty. The vehicle takes regular gasoline, which is great.

The Escape is labeled a compact sport utility, since it is only 174.7 inches long and 71.1 inches wide. It weighs 3,636 pounds, not much more than a conventional sedan. Inside, there is front shoulder room of 56.6 inches and rear shoulder room of 55.9 inches to be shared by as many as three passengers. Front-seat legroom is 41.6 inches, but rear legroom is down to the basic 35.6 inches. If there is one must-have option, it is the navigation system and hybrid power display; the power display gives you an updated minute-by-minute indicator of your fuel mileage. One standard feature is a visible auxiliary audio input jack under the dashboard unit - useful now that so many people use an iPod or a rival device to bring their own music on the road.

The 2008 Escape hybrid will offer a tougher look, more airbags and Ford’s new Ice Blue dashboard lighting scheme, in addition to seats made of recycled materials. Additionally, the 2008 Escape hybrid will cost almost $1000 less than last year’s model. Even better, Ford is currently offering some nice incentives on the Escape hybrid. For example, Ford offers either $2000 cash back in some areas on Escape purchases. Or, you can finance the Escape hybrid for 36 months at 0 percent, plus $1000.00 cash back. As for 2007, it will be interesting to see what happens to Ford Escape hybrid sales when Toyota hybrids run out of tax credits, especially if gas prices continue to rise. While the basic system used in the Escape Hybrid is licensed from Toyota, Ford’s engineers claim they have considerably modified the Toyota system and, in many instances, improved on it. I don’t know about that but I can say the Escape driving experience is quite different from the Prius.

In fact, if you did not know the Escape was a hybrid, you’d be hard pressed to realize you weren’t driving a conventional 200 hp V-6. It is smooth, quiet and amazingly quick. The 0 – 60mph time has to be below 9 seconds, which again puts it well into V-6 territory. In order to optimize the efficiency of the mostly conventional 2.3L Duratec 4-cylinder engine under the hood, some interesting modifications have been made to it. One of the most interesting is the Atkinson-Cycle variant of the conventional 4-stroke cycle. It is tailored to the hybrid’s specific driving characteristics and reduces fuel consumption by an additional 4%. The Atkinson-Cycle variant reduces low-end torque, which is not needed on a Hybrid drive since the electric motors provide instant maximum torque. Power gets to the wheels via a fuel efficient, electronically controlled continuous variable transmission (eCVT). Towing capacity is 1000 lbs.