Ford Escape Hybrid and Mercury Mariner Hybrid Bring Eco-Style to Hollywood

Producer of Best Picture Nominated "Crash" to arrive at Oscars in Mariner Hybrid Ford shows its support of awards with an ad in The Hollywood Reporter paying tribute to cars in the movies Ford Motor Company will increase its global hybrid production ten-fold to approximately 250,000 units annually by 2010. LOS ANGELES, March 3, 2006 – Ford Motor Company’s hybrid vehicles – the Ford Escape Hybrid and the Mercury Mariner Hybrid – will bring stars to the red carpet Sunday evening for the 78th Annual Academy Awards® and many related events this weekend.

Cathy Schulman, executive producer of “Crash” – which featured the Lincoln Navigator in a pivotal sequence – will be going green Sunday in a Mariner Hybrid. Her film is nominated for six awards – including Best Picture. Schulman got her first look at the Mercury Mariner Hybrid Friday.

"It’s great that hybrid technology is now available in the Mercury Mariner and that I have the chance to drive it to many of the events surrounding Academy Awards weekend," Schulman said. “We cast the Lincoln Navigator in “Crash,” so it’s nice for me to be arriving in the newest, green member of the Lincoln-Mercury family.”

In addition to providing transportation to stars, Ford is saluting this year’s nominees and participants with a two-page advertisement in Friday’s special edition of The Hollywood Reporter.

“Ford Motor Company has had a long love affair with Hollywood and we salute all of the nominees this year,” said Myles Romero, Global Brand Entertainment Director, Ford Motor Company. “Ford’s relationship with the movie industry dates back to silent films, and today our Beverly Hills office has the widest portfolio of automotive brands available for movies, TV, and other entertainment opportunities.”

The Mercury Mariner Hybrid is the second of five hybrids to be built by Ford, following the Ford Escape Hybrid, and was named the “2006 Green Car of the Year” by Green Car Journal.

By 2008, Ford will have five hybrids on the road, including the Ford Escape, Mercury Mariner, Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan and Mazda Tribute Hybrids. By 2010, Ford plans to increase its global hybrid production to approximately 250,000 hybrid units annually.

The Ford Escape Hybrid and the Mercury Mariner Hybrid are compact SUVs that blend the best features of a gasoline engine and an electric motor to achieve nearly 50 percent higher city driving efficiency and lower emissions with no loss of functionality or performance. The hybrids meet the cleanest emission achievable by a fossil-fuel vehicle: California ’s Advanced Technology Partial Zero Emissions (AT-PZEV) Standard. In addition, the vehicles feature extended range well over 400 miles per tank and V-6-like acceleration performance. Ford Motor Company has more than 150 patents from technological innovations developed for its hybrid program.