Ford Delays Hybrid Launch

Ford Motor Co. is delaying fleet availability of its groundbreaking Hybrid Escape until summer of 2004, Ward's has learned.

Ford Div. President Steve Lyons says the move is being made to ensure the vehicle — Ford's first offering with a gasoline-electric powertrain — performs as it should. Any company that might enter the high-profile hybrid market with a substandard vehicle “would never recover,” Lyons tells Ward's.

The launch sequence for Hybrid Escape had called for fleet vehicles to become available by year's end, with retail units reaching showrooms by next summer. The revised launch plan calls for simultaneous fleet and retail availability, a spokesman says, adding there is no single “issue” contributing to the delay.

A source in Claycomo, MO, site of Escape's assembly, downplays the holdup, saying it is intended more to refine than reinvent.

Ford has built “durability units” for in-house testing, another spokesman says. This process will continue, he adds.

Lyons says Ford expects to sell as many as 25,000 Hybrid Escapes. Its projected fuel economy rating of 35 mpg (6.7 L/100 km) combines with off-road capability and power akin to a V-6 engine — this despite its I-4 foundation.