In article <cl1m4f$l7k$1@blue.rahul.net>, dold@XReXXNewXA.usenet.us.com wrote:

>The 94HP electric motor in the Escape is one horse less than the
>gas+electric in my Civic. I drove the Escape on Saturday, and I'm shopping
>for a price to order one this week. Orders are bein taken for delivery in
>January, given current allocations and waiting lists.

Note that, as with the Prius, the engine hp + motor hp don't add
linearly. There's probably numerous reasons for this, but one is
that the battery isn't capable of supplying the ~80 kW to drive
the motor at this power! Basically, the engine has to run a
generator to fully power the motor(!). This might seem strange,
but it does make some sense from a system point of view.

>Batteries arent't terribly expensive. My IMA is 120 NiMH D-Cells.
>The Ford Escape is 150 NiMH D-Cells. That's less than $1000 retail.

A correction: The Escape has 250 cells, I believe of similar
amp-hr capacity to that of the Honda's. So, should be about 2x as
expensive.

But still, we're talking $2000 or so. The motors and generators
also add considerable expense. So I think the ~$3000 or so they
add to the price is a pretty good deal. As I mentioned, I expect
with time they will get cheaper. Whether they choose to pass on
that savings, I don't know (probably more a matter of "when" for
both).