Looks like someone at or near the University of British Columbia is converting regular Escapes to hybrids or ev's. (If they want hybrids, surely they could just buy them.)

"These are engines that have been taken out of several Ford Escapes, 07'-09's, as part of a project to replace them with electric motors, or hybrid engines."

http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/va...491405836.html

 

A simple search led me to this:
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/thorinbrown

Mr. Brown's cv included a link to REV, a startup company building Escape EV's.

http://revtechnologies.ca/company.html

The website has too much detail to be a fake, so it looks like they indeed make, or made, Escape EV's, and right where I live. If you're interested in this stuff, their website is worth exploring.

An Internet search for "rapid electric vehicles" turns up all sorts of information about them, including Youtube videos. There's also a Facebook page. However, there seems to have been no news for over a year. Reading the tea leaves suggests they were unable to raise capital to proceed.