[Snax]

Regardless of what Ford thinks is going to sell tomorrow, they proved the benefits of a hybrid drivetrain in a larger vehicle with the Escape. While not as impressive on economy, it demonstrated something people wanted in a less conventional 'car'. They could have put the same drivetrain into the Sport-Trac and had a pickup truck winner before anybody else ever got close to that market.

Instead, they just tried to sell more trucks - because that is what people were buying more than anything else at the time, and government incentives to do anything else were inadequate to do otherwise.