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Article: Ford to start national sales of hybrid Escape sport-ute
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- December 6, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2004 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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Ford Motor plans to start national U.S. sales of the gasoline-
electric Escape sport-utility vehicle in January as production of the
company's first hybrid increases.
The Escape hybrid has been sold only in California, Michigan and
the northeastern U.S., said Steve Lyons, president of the automaker's
Ford division. Ford began building the model in August and will
produce about 4,000 this year, he said. The production plan is for
20,000 annually starting next year.
"That will be easy to do," said auto analyst Erich Merkle at
consulting firm IRN Inc. in Grand Rapids, Mich. "Assuming there's no
quality issues, I'm sure they could do" 35,000 to 40,000 a year, he
said.
Ford was the first U.S. ...