Canada’s Globe and Mail carries an interview with Ford’s Mary Ann Wright, formerly the chief engineer of the Escape Hybrid, now director of sustainable mobility technologies and hybrid vehicle programs for Ford since April, 2004. In that role she is responsible for all present and future hybrid, fuel cell and alternative fuel technology development at the company.

Vaughan: Personally, I’m not convinced of the wisdom of dragging around an extremely complicated vehicle with two power systems, a noisy continuously variable transmission and some very heavy lead batteries under the back seat. I prefer high-mileage modern diesels. Am I wrong?

Wright: The Escape Hybrid is very technically advanced and works every bit as well as expected. It has been proven out to ensure useful life reliability and meets all of our durability standards. That “noisy cut” is really the power train system optimizing fuel economy and emissions. The battery is located behind the seats and serves as a load floor in order not to compromise cargo space. Diesels don’t deliver the fuel economy or AT-PZEV [near zero] emissions that hybrids do.

From the quote, and from the structure of her title, it sounds as though Ford is not considering diesel development part of their portfolio for sustainable mobility. Too bad, given the potential of a diesel hybrid and the actual work Ford and its partners are doing in Europe with the diesel platfrom. (For example, see this earlier post on the new Ford Mondeo.)