January 10, 2005
| Ford
Escape Hybrid Wins Top Truck Award
|
The world's first gas-electric
hybrid sports utility vehicle won the North American
International Auto Show's 2004 North American Truck of the Year. Ford's
first production hybrid vehicle was picked by about 50 American
and Canadian automotive journalists. Vehicles,
such as the award-winning Ford
Escape hybrid are judged on design, safety, handling, and
innovations, plus driver satisfaction and value. The
North American International Auto Show is one of the auto
industry's most important stages, and will be attended by almost
7,000 journalists from more than 60 countries. The
Escape hybrid, in addition to being the first gas-electric
hybrid sports utility vehicle, is also America's first
production hybrid automobile. Based
on hybrid technology similar to the Toyota
Prius hybrid car, the Escape hybrid was released late last
summer. Ford is also
planning to create a Mercury Mariner SUV hybrid later this year. Only
Honda has multiple hybrid vehicles at this point in time. The Accord
hybrid is already Honda's third hybrid. This
year, Toyota will be adding two additional hybrids. In April,
the Lexus RX
400h Hybrid will be released, and the Toyota
Highlander hybrid will follow a few months later.
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