Hybrid Lovers: There's No Escape From Statistics

USA Toda y is in the thrall of . . . the Ford Escape Hybrid. As is the President of these here United States, who traded his gas-hungry Chrysler 300C for the gas – electric trucklette. No surprise, then, that we’ve heard rumors of shortages. Well, not rumors, exactly. More like an open admission by FoMoCo’s El Presidente del Americas. “We are constrained by the amount of components, including batteries, that the supply base can provide us,” Mark Fields said in December ’08. Same spin again in January ’09, via a Blue Oval Boy on Edmunds. The scuttlebutt: Ford loses money on every Escape Hybrid they sell; so it sells as few as possible. Of course, that doesn’t stop The Glass House Gang from using the vehicle to earn brownie points with the MSM . . .

Los Angeles County has 45 Ford Escape hybrid SUVs for its lifeguards — you know, the ones ofBaywatch fame. With a little help from some of the Escapes, they made 9,000 rescues over the past year. In the process, the hybrids cut the fleet’s fuel usage by 25%. That amounts to more than 5,000 gallons during the first six months of service, Ford says.

Impressive. But, once again, the Detroit automaker is touting relative vs. absolute gains. So, let’s have a closer look.

The SUVs replaced what had been mostly a fleet of Nissan Frontier pickups. The $29,645 Escapes accomplished the gas savings even as lifeguards drove 20% more due to higher beach attendance this year compared with last year. Escape hybrids have fuel economy of 29 miles per gallon in the city and 27 mpg on the highway. The SUVs also cut carbon emissions that figure in global warming.

To see this in perspective (i.e., over-think it), we need to compare the Nissan Frontier 4 X 4 to the Ford Escape Hybrid 4 X 4 (drivetrain betrayed by the EPA stats).

Problem: we don’t know how many Nissan Frontiers were in the Baywatch fleet before the Escapes escaped Ford’s funnel. An old Tahoe here and there could seriously skew the stats.

More importantly, which engine motivated their Nissan trucks: the QR25DE 2.5-liter DOHC 16-valve 4-cylinder (19/23) or the VQ40DE 4.0-liter DOHC 24-valve V6 (14/19)?

Assuming it’s a battle on all fours, the Escape Hybrid’s gas – electric mill and the Nissan Frontier’s four pot stump-up virtually identical horsepower (153 hp vs. 152 hp). But we’re torquing 136 lb·ft @ 4,500 vs. 171 lb·ft @ 4,400 rpm, respectively. That’s a lot more twist even if we’re not comparing the Ford Escape Hybrid’s gas – electric mill to the Frontier’s V6 (261 hp @ 5,600 rpm and 281 lb·ft of torque @ 4,000 rpm).

Which brings up another important variable: size. The Escape is a far less thirsty, lighter vehicle than the four cylinder Frontier (3804 lbs. vs. 4147 lbs. curb weight). But the Nissan is a much larger, more capacious, work-friendly vehicle. It’s a pickup truck, dontcha know.

To compare apples to apples, I reckon the Nisan Rogue is the best Ford Escape equivalent; Nissan’s mini-CUV’s wheelbase is just 2″ longer. The four-cylinder, four-wheel-drive Rogue gets 21/26 EPA mpg. FYI.

Which leaves us where? I dunno really. But simply regurgitating Ford press releases doesn’t reflect any glory upon USA Today, or tell consumers what they really want to know: what’s in it for me? Until and unless Ford can get Escape Hybrids into dealerships in any number, nothing.