The Ford Escape Hybrid and Mercury Mariner Hybrid are the gasoline-electric hybr

id powered versions that launched in the U.S. in 2004 for the 2005 model year. B
uilt in Kansas City, Missouri, it was the first hybrid SUV to hit the market. Th
e Ford Escape Hybrid was the first American-built hybrid and the first hybrid ve
hicle from an American automaker, joined by the Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra H
ybrids during the same model year. According to the Environmental Protection Age
ncy, the first generation Ford Escape Hybrid is 70% more efficient than the regu
lar Escape. The Mercury Mariner Hybrid is a rebadged version of the Escape Hybri
d. It features revised front-end styling and a more luxurious interior.
The first gasoline powered automobile had been created in 1885 by the German inv
entor Carl Benz (Benz Patent-Motorwagen). More efficient production methods were
needed to make automobiles affordable for the middle class, to which Ford contr
ibuted by, for instance, introducing the first moving assembly line in 1913 at t
he Ford factory in Highland Park.
Between 1903 and 1908, Ford produced the Models A, B, C, F, K, N, R, and S. Hund
reds or a few thousand of most of these were sold per year. In 1908, Ford introd
uced the mass-produced Model T, which would sell in the millions. In 1927, Ford
replaced the T with the Model A, the first car with safety glass in the windshie
ld.[12] Ford launched the first low-priced car with a V8 engine in 1932.