Ford Escape Earns Top Truck Honors at North American International Auto Show

A panel of journalists at the 2005 Detroit North American International Auto Show selected the Ford Escape Hybrid as the top truck, beating out the new Land Rover LR3 and the Ford Freestyle. To be eligible, panelists explained, the vehicles must be "all new" or "substantially changed" from the previous model release.

Stephen Lyons, Ford division president, stated that the automaker is currently experiencing trouble keeping up with high demand for the company's first hybrid model and the first American gasoline-electric hybrid, following on the footsteps of Toyota and Honda whom originally introduced the gasoline-electric engine concept to the US market. "It's the first SUV hybrid," Mr. Lyons explained. "It's unique. You get all the advantage of hybrid fuel economy and the practicality of an SUV."

Lyons added that he believes it is an advantage to be the first automaker to market a hybrid SUV, ahead of Honda, Toyota and General Motors. These companies report that they are planning to unveil their respective hybrid SUV models to the United States in 2005 and 2006. "Very clearly there's a demand way beyond what we thought," Mr. Lyons continued, explaining the 20,000 SUV trucks planned for US production in 2005 "won't be nearly enough."

This year marked the second year in a row that a hybrid car or truck was chosen for top honors by the panel. In 2004 the Toyota Prius was the North American Car of the Year. Since 1994 the selection committee, made up of automotive journalists representing newspapers, magazines and television, honors a new car and a new truck that it feels has achieved a standard in their sectors in categories including value, innovation, safety, ride and handling.