"Less than two years ago a fleet of eighteen Escape Hybrids joined the ranks of New York City taxis. In that short span of time each one of them has now completed over 175,000 miles of service and saved an estimated $250,000 in fuel costs." Photo: http://www.autoblog.com/2007/04/04/ford-es...-new-york-stre/
lol.. the comments are funny but it does give Ford much needed credibility. Their hybrid system is pretty impressive considering that Chrysler needed to pair up with someone to develop a system. Now.. where's the 400,000km Prius taxi?
Ford's hybrid system was so similar to that of Toyota's THS (found on the original Prius) that Ford is paying Toyota licensing fees. Ford claims that their engineers just came out with the same technology, but in the patent search or through other discovery, found that Toyota had already patented several aspects of the system. So, unlike GM's "near Hybrid" compromise, the Ford hybrids are true hybrids, with a powertrain similar to the original Prius. Toyota leap-frogged the competition with the new hybrid models, IMO, so Ford is still a step behind. Ford should put its hybrid system in the Mazda 5 "minivan/station wagon"; that would be a killer combo.
