Buying Tip: Is 2010 Ford Escape Hybrid Only a Fair-Weather Friend? - GreenCarReports.com "As of the 2010 model year, Ford has switched the Escape Hybrid from a belt-driven air conditioning compressor to an electric unit. So, you'll be able to run with AC on and the gasoline engine off. (The 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, by the way, uses a similar electric AC unit.)"
It's about time. Now if only they'd figure out how to manufacture more hybrids, it seems like they've been production limited in sales for some time. I've seen a handful of Fusion hybrids on the road around here, they do look nice.
Considering that the Ford Hybrid Drive system is basically a variant of the Toyota Hybrid Synergy Drive (both fundamentally work the same way, since both uses the Power Split Device), it's only logical that the next improvement they make would be an electric AC unit. You can probably expect future models of the Fusion Hybrid and Escape Hybrid to incorporate many of the improvements Toyota has made to the HSD like the exhaust heat recovery system and such.
I heard a rumor that a future Fusion PHEV will have a swing-arm with a GM-compatible power plug so that it can "siphon" off electricity from the Volt at stoplights.
Given that the HSD is just a variant of the TRW hybrid system from the 1970s, that TRW tried to sell to Ford back then.... (you fill in the rest)....
