Any idea why Ford is under plan on the Escape? I presume it is production problems or parts availability and not lack of demand

The 'under plan' number might indicate SUV buyers aren't very sensitive to fuel economy at purchase time. This could be a flaw in the idea of intro'ing hybrids first in SUVs and trucks by GM/Ford. In other words, while it might make sense technically to produce hybrid light trucks, the social dimension of customer acceptance in that market segment may hold back sales.

That well could be. The Financial Times ran a piece this morning in which Toyota noted that the low price of gasoline in the US is a barrier to hybrid purchasing.

The low price of petrol means there is no financial justification for buying fuel-efficient hybrid petrol-electric cars in the US, according to Toyota, maker of the hybrid market leader, the Prius.

Kazuo Okamoto, who takes over as head of research and development at Toyota next month, said the extra costs of hybrid cars more than wiped out any financial gains of lower fuel consumption. Buyers in the US would have to want to help the environment, not just save money. In Japan and Europe, the extra costs were approximately balanced by fuel savings.

To echo Ron, it may be that more of the people willing to shoulder that cost burden in the short term are also car buyers, not SUV buyers.

>Mariner hybrid
Why cant Ford offer and plugin hybrid option?
Or is the U. S. going to be last in everything.
People are actually ripping out the battery from the
Prius to stick in a larger battery so they can
plugin the car and get zero emmisions as well as
lower cost per mile.
With Lithium Ion needing a boost in production to reduce
the cost for EV's I cant understand why they dont offer
this as an option.
bob