When Ford handed over the keys to a plug-in Escape hybrid to Southern California Edison last December, one of many secrets the companies kept to themselves was which battery maker was responsible for the lithium-ion batteries fulfilling the electric part of the equation. The company has now been revealed and it's Johnson Controls-Saft, which has a dedicated li-ion battery plant in France. Johnson Controls will be providing the li-ion batteries for all of the PHEV Escapes for Ford's demonstration fleet (including those at the Electric Power Research Institute) as it grows from the one or two on the road today to 20 in the coming year and a half. More PHEV Escapes will be delivered to the utilities later this month, and future versions will be tweaked and updated as data comes in from the daily drives. More from Ford after the jump.

SUVs just aren't as popular as they used to be. Last June, when Ford donated a 2007 Ford Escape hybrid to the Santa Monica Bay protection group Heal The Bay, the SUV sold for $37,000. A year later, the same company gives the same vehicle (well, a 2008 model) to the same group, but this time the auction price is only $33,000. Ford's announcement of this year's auction (available after the jump) says that sales of Ford hybrid SUVs at this annual event have brought in $195,000 since 2004. Five vehicles divided into $195,000 gives an average of $39,000, so the trend is downward.

Heal The Bay has been working since 1985 to "making Santa Monica Bay and Southern California costal waters safe and healthy again for people and marine life." Aside from the annual hybrid SUV donation, Ford also sponsor's HTB's "Beach Report Card," which grades California beaches from Humboldt County to the Mexican border.

Ford is providing Los Angeles County Ocean Lifeguards with 45 customized Escape Hybrids. The Escapes will be used to patrol 72 miles of Southern California coastline. According to Mike Frazer, chief of Lifeguard Services for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, "We wanted to be the first public safety agency in the country to go green." The Escape Hybrid qualifies for California's PZEV standard. The lifeguards are switching from pick-up trucks to the hybrid SUV after they verified its performance on sand. While the eco characteristics of the hybrid powertrain, such as 29/27 mpg (city/hwy), were a plus, the vehicles needed to be adapted to meet the lifeguards' needs. Therefore, the following changes were made:

• A rescue equipment storage unit - an aluminum box with specially designated spaces for important emergency equipment, such as defibrillators, trauma boxes and oxygen tanks.
• Several radios stacked up in a rack placed where the center console is.
• A custom-fit roof rack for the lifeguards' paddle board and spine board.
• Easy-to-clean rubber floor mats and cargo liners.
• And of course, some iconic yellow paint.

Full press release after the jump.

At the New York Auto Show last week we had our first opportunity to actually go for a drive in one of Ford's new plug-in hybrid Escapes. Last year Ford announced a partnership with Southern California Edison to build and test twenty plug-in hybrid Escapes. SCE will be using the crossovers in their fleet to evaluate performance, durability and mileage. They will also be testing out vehicle-to-grid technology using the Escapes. For our drive, Chief Engineer Greg Frenette accompanied us on a half hour drive around Manhattan, mostly in stop and go traffic. We also had an opportunity to open it up a bit on the West Side Highway.

The Escape that Ford brought out to Manhattan was the first of the twenty prototypes being built for the program over the next year and a half. According to Frenette as they build the vehicles they will be changing as the company learns from the previous iterations. The current model is based on the 2008 Escape Hybrid with the 2.3L four cylinder. Future vehicles that will be built starting this summer will use the upgrades planned for the 2009 models including the new 2.5L engine. The primary mechanical changes for this unit involves swapping out the standard 2kWh nickel metal hydride battery pack in favor of a 10kWh lithium ion pack along with a charger and a plug mounted in the left front fender. Aside from that, most of the changes are in software with different calibrations to optimize the use of the lithium battery. Continue reading about the plug-in Escape after the jump.


[Source: Ford]

Just in time to better compete with the upcoming Saturn Vue Two-Mode hybrid, Ford is rolling out a series of updates to the Escape and Mariner (and likely the badge engineered Mazda Tribute) hybrids. The big news is an updated 2.5L four cylinder engine that supplants the existing 2.3L unit. The revised engine includes variable cam timing on the intake camshaft, the first such application on the Ford hybrids. The updated engine still runs on an Atkinson cycle and the updates improve performance without degrading the fuel economy. When we tested the 2008 Escape hybrid last year it achieved a real world 30mpg, so that should be maintained.

One of the complaints with the existing Escape hybrid is the brake system. Many drivers don't like the pedal feel and, unlike the conventional models, the hybrids haven't had traction or stability control. That changes for 2009. Ford claims a new brake system improves the blending of friction and regenerative braking. It also adds traction, stability and roll stability control to the package for the hybrids.

The conventional Escape and Mariner also get powertrain upgrades. The 2.5L four cylinder also replaces the 2.3L in the base version and gets the variable valve timing on the intake camshaft. The four gets an increase power from 153hp to 170hp. The up-level 3.0L V-6 gets new pistons, cylinder heads and injection system for a 30hp increase to 230hp. All the Escapes and Mariners also get some minor aerodynamic tweaks as well. Both engines are paired up with a new 6-speed automatic transmission, which, when combined with the engine changes, gives a 1mpg increase to each model while improving acceleration and towing capability. The Ford press release is after the jump.

[Source: Ford]

Back at EVS23, Ford handed over the keys for a plug-in hybrid Escape to Southern California Edison. I've finally had time to edit together the video I shot that day, so watch it already. :)

In the first part of this video (above) we see the PHEV Escape arrive at the Anaheim Convention Center and the official handoff of the keys from Ford to SCE. As you can see, Nancy Gioia, Ford's director of sustainable mobility technologies and hybrid vehicle programs, doesn't answer a lot of questions about the vehicle's battery, but does say that the PHEV uses a 10 kWh battery. Ford's Susan Cischke, senior vice president, sustainability, environment and safety engineering, sat down with AutoblogGreen after the hand-over to talk about the car and the unique (as far as I know) input screen in the vehicle that lets the driver adjust the gasoline and electricity costs so that the cost per trip is accurately displayed during the drive. Very sweet.

Part two of this video will be posted is now available after the break once I finish editing it.

Representatives from Ford and Southern California Edison were obviously quite excited about a big event on Monday at EVS23, where Ford's Sue Cischke (second from left), senior vice president, Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering and Nancy Gioia (right), director, Sustainable Mobility, drove up in a plug-in Ford Escape hybrid right to the doors of the Anaheim Convention Center. There, two representatives from SCE (whose names I misplaced. Sorry) took the keys to the PHEV, which marked the first of 20 such vehicles that Ford will give to SCE for in-fleet and (coming in the second year of the program) customer testing. I spent some time conducting interviews using my video camera and will post those later (neither Ford nor SCE would give out a lot of technical information - information on the batteries and the battery supplier, for example, are being kept under wraps), but there was lots of cheerful hope that this program will deliver good things to both companies.

The PHEV Escape is a solid (seeming) vehicle. I didn't get a ride, but Ford must have a lot of confidence in this SUV to let SCE get its hands on twenty of them. The 20 will be rolled out in such a way that later versions will be changed based on feedback from the early models. Some parts of the Escape PHEV are already pretty sweet. My favorite part of the PHEV Escape interior is the information screen/computer, where Ford saw fit to include an input page where the driver can set the current cost of gasoline and electricity which then allows the vehicle to tell the driver how much each mile costs and the amount of fuel saved. You can see a close-up of the screen here and we'll have a video of the screen in action (and lots more) once I get a chance to edit things together.

Until then, here are the little speeches given by the participants as part of handing SCE the keys to Ford's exciting new PHEV Escape. Give them a listen (7 min, 1.8MB).

UPDATE: Videos of the event - and that screen - are now available here.

Ford announced that a Ford Escape plug-in hybrid, able to reach 120 mpg (yes, that's what they say) has already been delivered to utility company California South Edison as "part of unique partnership to advance commercialization of PHEVs." It's the first of a series of 20 vehicles which will conduct a long-term road test.

The Escape batteries can be charged using common household current (120 V in the US) and it takes from 6 to 8 hours. The full charge can power the vehicle up to 30 miles. Once that initial charge is finished, the vehicle works as a standard hybrid, recharging batteries when possible. The battery pack is made from lithium ion high-voltage batteries, from which the press release says "the cost of advanced lithium ion batteries means the technology is currently not economically feasible for widespread vehicle application."

(Note from Sebastian: the actual ceremony to hand over the PHEV Escape is going to happen in about 15 minutes here at EVS23, and I'm on my way there)

[Source: Ford]

Did you think that only BMW was going to show its green vehicle technologies via the entertainment industry? Not likely. Now it's time for Ford, which has a bunch of Escape Hybrids that are going to be the official transportation for the Screen Actors Guild's (SAG) Award of Excellence Star on Hollywood Boulevard. The event is celebrating its 75th edition this year.

Ford is sponsoring the event and using it to showcase the Escape hybrids. Fifteen of these vehicles were used to shuttle Screen Actors Guild members and other VIPs from the breakfast ceremony to Hollywood Boulevard where SAG received The Award of Excellence Star from the Hollywood Historic Trust.

The interest is obvious, as Bill Ford said: "Introducing our Ford Escape Hybrid to Hollywood today continues a long tradition of Ford's supporting role in movies and television that goes all the way back to our company's Model T."

Related:

• Glamor post of the week: BMW Hydrogen 7 is official limo for Rome Film Festival
• Uma Thurman, Tyra Banks take steps to green their transportation

[Source: Ford]