Is there anything the Ford Escape Hybrid can't do? Following its by-all-accounts successful foray into East Coast taxi-dom (there are currently some 845 Escape Hybrid taxicabs plying the streets of New York), the Claycomo, Missouri-built compact SUV is heading west. Still yellow, but festooned with all manner of life-saving paraphernalia, the Escape Hybrid arrives in Los Angeles County as the ride of choice for lifeguards along a 72-mile stretch of So-Cal sand.
At the Los Angeles County Lifeguard Headquarters in Venice, Ford today presented 10 four-wheel-drive Beach Patrol Escape Hybrids, establishing a fleet that will grow to 45 vehicles. Beyond the graphics, a light bar, and an assortment of rescue gear, the Baywatch Edition is pretty much standard-issue Escape Hybrid, with a new-for-2009 2.5-liter Atkinson-cycle four-cylinder engine and a 70-kilowatt permanent magnet AC synchronous motor. With four-wheel drive, it'll return 29 mpg in town (or on the beach), and 27 mpg on the highway.
And it's clean, too. Notes Ford's California regional sales manager, Hal Dewsnap: "To put it in a California summer context, [the Escape Hybrid] releases fewer smog-forming emissions into the atmosphere during a three-hour drive (about 180 miles) than grilling one hamburger in your back yard."
The Texas Beef Council won't be pleased.
More photos after the break, courtesy of Ford.
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