I think this is great news that they're trying to gain a technological advantage in an important area in order to rebuild the company -- rather than playing financing tricks to sell cars. Incentives work to get you over a short-term hump, but they are no long-term strategy.

The Mercury Mariner IS a Ford Escape IS a Mazda Tribute (they're all the same car). So making hybrid versions of each is a no-brainer -- they've already engineered the innards of the vehicle drive-train and hybrid system. The difference in the models is purely cosmetic (different interior and different body panels - and even the body panels aren't *much* different.).

Fleet vehicles have never been very profitable (they make pennies on these cars because of the volume negotiations from the buyers -- things like states that buy Ford Crown Victorias to use as police cars), but I do think that hybrid taxi-cabs would be a fantastic idea. Since cabs pretty much run 24x7 and mostly in stop-&-go traffic, the dollar value saved on annual fuel to run the car would be a much bigger savings than a consumer-owned hybrid.

I really don't want to see them muddy the hybrid with 'performance'. I wasn't very happy with Toyota's Highlander or Lexus RX400h hybrids. I was looking seriously at the Lexus RX 400h hybrid -- that is until I found how bad it's economy is. Nobody should offer a hybrid whose window sticker fuel economy doesn't at least start with the number "3" or higher. Toyota engineers should be forced to wear bags over their heads in utter humiliation and shame. They must have thought it was a great idea, but it really is the WORST of both worlds. Consumers get to pay the hybrid technology premium (let's face it, these cars aren't cheap) and STILL merely get traditional combustion-engine fuel economy. Why would I want that? I guess they were afraid consumers wouldn't like it's acceleration so they optimized on performance. If they're going to do that, at least put a switch on the dash that lets me go from "performance" mode to "economy" mode... because I prefer economy; screw performance. I _do_ however notice on Lexus (Toyota) website that they are going to offer a Lexus GS Hybird. It looks remakrably similar to the Prius. Let's just hope it gets Prius-like fuel economy and that they don't re-optimize their engine computer to give that car "performance".