2006 Ford Escape Hybrid Test Drive

Ford's SUV for the New Millenium

Kermit was wrong. It's very easy being green. The 2006 Ford Escape Hybrid is a fuel-efficient SUV. No, it's not an oxymoron.

When we first encountered the new Ford Escape Hybrid last year, we were bemoaning oil prices that were lurking around $40 per barrel. Now that the price is more like $60 per barrel -- and likely to climb even higher -- this car, along with the Toyota Motor's Prius and new Highlander and the Lexus RX 400H, as well as Honda Motor's lineup of hybrids, is attracting serious demand.

And yet, even with at-the-pump fill-ups costing as much as $2.50 per gallon in California -- and a bit less in the Southeast -- it still doesn't make perfect economic sense to buy a hybrid vehicle.

Note that we said "perfect" sense. Because there are several factors that always seem to get lost when economists and other pointy-headed types sharpen their pencils and deem hybrids a no-go. Here's what we mean:

The Escape Hybrid 4WD costs $28,455 and gets 33 mpg in the city and 29 mpg on the highway. Assuming you take Ford's word that the Escape Hybrid performs more like its V-6 non-Hybrid XLT model -- and not like the carmaker's cheaper, more efficient four-cylinder edition (more on this below) -- that means you need to compare the Hybrid with the $25,140 XLT 4WD Escape, which gets 18 mpg in the city and 22 mpg on the highway.

So if you're an economist, you'd say that you're eating $3,315, and that it'll take years to make up the extra expenditure at the gas pump. But if you're an automotive journalist, you say hooey. That's right -- I'm not buying it. And here are three reasons why:

1. The Ford Escape Hybrid is attracting curiosity (and even buyers) who, otherwise, would never even think about buying an "ordinary" Escape. During our week of testing, we had all sorts of yuppies -- a driver of Toyota's Lexus RX330, another who had Nissan's Infiniti G35 and a third who zipped about in General Motors'Cadillac SRX -- peppering us with questions in parking lots. Do you think these people would even feign interest in a standard Ford Escape? We'll have more on the "why" of this interest level below.

2. $3,315 is a fair chunk of change. But you don't go into a dealer and have the sales guy on the showroom floor say, "Well, you could pay $25,140, but I'm going to charge you $28,455." If you're shopping for the Escape Hybrid, of which only about 20,000 will be made available this year, you'll be on a waiting list for this vehicle, the new Mercury Mariner Hybrid, which is the twin of the Escape, and maybe Toyota's impossible-to-get $34,430 Highlander 4WD, as well. You're just hoping to get a hybrid sport utility vehicle (SUV) any way you can.

3. More hybrids sold in this country in the first six months of 2005 than in all of 2004; Toyota Prius sales are on target to top 100,000 this year, and 2005 hybrid sales will at least double 2004 figures. While the cost of these cars is still higher than that of a conventional, gas-powered model, at some point the economics of the scale will tip the balance toward hybrids; early adopters may be responsible for this shift, but with demand showing no sign of ebbing, companies not in position to capitalize on this growth will be the big losers. Toyota, Honda and now Ford are pushing in that direction (Nissan will have an Altima hybrid next year). But GM and DaimlerChrysler are only slowly coming to the dance, and this could hurt their "green" rep in the near term.

It's true that it will take years to recoup the upcharge for any hybrid. At least for now, these vehicles carry a price premium, and unless gas prices hit about $5 per gallon or more, the out-of-the-gate costs will take about six years to recoup (give or take -- based on gas prices averaging about $2 per gallon). Yeah, there's a Federal tax credit of $1,500 for buying a hybrid -- and that may even increase if Congress enacts current pending legislation -- but, for most people, that amounts to a fairly small tax credit--not $1,500 in their pockets.

Nevertheless, buyers are lining up, and the reasons aren't hard to parse. Americans are sick of being labeled as gluttons. They're perhaps sick of the war in Iraq, as well, and simultaneously feel powerless to change their nation's dependence on foreign oil. And on the individual-buyer level, the added cost of a hybrid is clearly far outweighed by the payoff of empowerment -- feeling like they're putting themselves back in control and feeling a bit better about the gasoline they do buy. And if Americans can do all this while still buying a Ford, it sure doesn't hurt.

Does this make the Escape Hybrid the best hybrid SUV? Well, that's a very different question. Our answers follow.