The current Ford Escape line is expected to being shuttered after 2026, but it looks like it may not be sold in every state. Let’s talk about why.
Starting in 2026, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington will adopt a new emissions standard from California’s CARB. The Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II) program affects light-duty passenger vehicles from model years 2026 through 2035. According to CARB, two things will happen: the availability and sales target of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) will increase, as will the testing standards on tailpipe pollutants.
How strict are the changes from the original ACC plan to ACC II? When it comes to PHEVs, fewer of them qualify for ZEV credits, and EV range also becomes a big factor. The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), a nonprofit research organization, explains:
Although plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) are not zero-emission vehicles, these programs include PHEVs in the calculation of the state’s ZEV credit (ACC) or value (ACC II) percentage requirement.
Under ACC, PHEVs are required to have at least 10 miles of all-electric range under the UDDS test and meet superultra-low-emission (SULEV) engine emission standards or limits of 0.030 grams per mile (g/mile).
To earn a full value, PHEVs from MY 2026 must have a minimum of 70 miles all-electric certification range (roughly 50-mile consumer label range), and 40 miles all-electric certification range on the US06 drive schedule—an aggressive test cycle that indicates that the vehicle can run on electric power under any normal driving conditions.
Simply, a PHEV will only get credit toward the total ZEV sales count if it can operate in electric-only mode for at least 70 miles. Even then, PHEVs can only account for 20% of the ZEV population, down from 55% in 2018. (Granted, consumers have more choices today in terms of ZEVs).
As for the Escape, it doesn’t travel far enough. The EPA lists the Escape PHEV’s EV-only range at 37 miles — good enough for ACC I, but far below the ACC II requirements. When contacted, the Ford PR team’s response was:
The 26MY Escape meets emissions requirements in all states except six states that for the 26MY imposed additional emission requirements.
As a former PR professional, I think a “no comment” would’ve been more PR-y versus this official statement, which comes off a bit as “Meh, we don’t care about compliance or those states.” California remains the largest new-car market in the U.S. More than 1.7 million new vehicles were registered in 2024, putting the state ahead of Texas and Florida, which rounded up the top three.
Keep in mind that, along with the District of Columbia, more states are slated to follow suit on ACC II in 2027. They include Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Rhode Island. Just be mindful if you find a sweet deal on an Escape/Corsair PHEV in one state but plan to register it in another.
Some states might have exemptions, though. California has a 1,000-mile limit on non-compliant CARB vehicles, but it only applies to trucks and buses. A mileage limit on the daily driver hybrid also defeats its purpose.
[Editor’s Note: This story, published on Independence Day when editors were barbecuing, did not go through The Autopian’s typically rigorous editing process, and that’s on me, the EIC. The story originally suggested the Escape PHEV was being banned because it’s too dirty. It’s not dirty; in fact, it’s rather clean and can be certified to be sold in any state. It’s just not fully compliant with ACCII PHEV requirements, but there are plenty of sub-50-mile PHEVs that will continue to be sold in the six aforementioned states because the automakers decided it was worth it even without the generation of ZEV credits. Apparently Ford has decided it is not worth it in the case of the Escape.
I will note that Ford’s response, “The 26MY Escape meets emissions requirements in all states except six states that for the 26MY imposed additional emission requirements” is a bit odd, and could lead one to think it could not be certified. That’s not the case, and it can be registered, regardless of where you buy it, but it does have to be used. I’ll let the DMV explain:
To obtain California registration, new California noncertified vehicles (CNCV) (formerly known as 49-state), must either have California emission equipment or certified to federal emissions standards to qualify for an exemption.
To register a CNCV with less than 7,500 miles, that is only equipped to meet federal emissions standards, vehicle owner must certify to one of the exemptions on the Statement of Facts Califorina Non-Certified Vehicle or New/Used Direct Import Vehicle (REG 256F) (PDF) form:
- They inherited the vehicle or were awarded the vehicle in a divorce, dissolution, or legal separation, and the vehicle is certified to federal emissions standards.
- They purchased the vehicle (out of state) to replace a California – registered vehicle (in their name) which was damaged or became inoperative beyond reasonable repair, or was stolen (submit a copy of registration, the repair estimates, or police report) while they were out of state and the vehicle is certified to federal emissions standards.
- When they acquired the vehicle they were they were a resident, or on active military duty, in another state where the vehicle was last registered and is certified to federal emissions standards.
- Emergency and certain other vehicles, as noted in the Vehicle Code Sections 27156.2 and 27156.3, must be certified to federal emissions standards.
- The vehicle’s engine displacement is less than 50 cubic centimeters.
Our apologies for not getting the details right; it won’t happen again.
-DT].
(H/T to Motor1 for the lead.)
Top graphic credit: Ford
Oof, that first paragraph was jarring to read.
This writer used to write for The Drive (as of just a few weeks ago) and I’m still not convinced she doesn’t use AI for all her stories.
What’s even stranger, is that the writers at The Drive tend to join the comments, she never did, not once.
Honestly my mind immediately went there, it just felt wrong in my gut.
I trust the bosses at the autopian to not use Ai, if this was any other website I would have made that alligation.
It looks like DT came in and made quite a few corrections (and comments about it). I don’t know what to think, but this is exactly what happened on The Drive.
Autopian either needs to get some people that understand emission standards or stop publishing articles on the topic.
The TL/DR version: The Ford Escape PHEV meets emission standards in all 50 states and DC. However, it will not generate CARB ZEV credits anymore.
We screwed up. Not just because this story didn’t go through our typical QC process, but because it took us this long to make corrections. That’s on me as EIC for not being more aware of what’s going on the site and how readers are reacting to it.
I agree with the critiques here, and have made the appropriate corrections.
Thank you, and again, our apologies.
There is a lot that’s misleading in this article. First, when I hear a car is too “dirty,” I assume that means it doesn’t meet the actual exhaust emissions standards, but the Escape and Corsair PHEVs easily do- they’re actual certified to SULEV20, a tighter standard than the required SULEV30, and they’re almost half as dirty as they could be under that standard (11mg/mi of NMOG+NOx on the FTP for the emissions nerd out there). Also, using the handy CARB EO summary (here for anyone that wants to see some actual facts), there are 22 PHEV cars that have been certified for MY26 so far, all from Mercedes and BMW. Not a single one is fully compliant with the ACCII PHEV requirements. The two Mercedes (S580 and GLE450) are close, with 68 and 64 miles of certification range, but they’re still classed as “Partial ZEV Qualifying PHEVs”. The BMWs are all under that and thus are “Non-ZEV Qualifying,” but guess what? They’re still certified with no issue, they just don’t give BMW credits. They’re also “too dirty” but BMW and Mercedes decided they still want to certify them anyway and sell them across the US. The actual interesting story here is about whether manufacturers will start to build PHEVs that actually meet the new standards or if the ACCII rules will push out PHEVs for BEVs and pure IC cars during the phase in.
Thank you, Luke, for taking the time to call us out on our BS. You are totally correct, and I have made the appropriate changes.
I thought the SCOTUS ruled that Trump can dump the CARB requirements.
Nothing to do with SCOTUS.
Trump recently signed a bill to revoke CARB’s Advanced Clean Car II waiver. This would not remove CARB – it would simply keep Advanced Clean Car I rules in place.
However the Senate used the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to pass this bill because it is not subject to the filibuster and they don’t have 60 votes need to pass it normally. However, both the Senate Parliamentarian and Government Accountability Office said they could not use the CRA because CARB’s waiver is not a federal regulation and CRA can only be used to review federal regulations. The CRA also has a specific deadline after a new congress takes power. It can only be used for 60 days and the Senate missed that deadline my a couple of days.
SO ….. CARB states immediately sued and the 9th Circuit has the case.
Post hoc ergo propter hoc.
How many times? Ouchie.
As others have mentioned a really click bait headline and not that great of an article.
That said I have been wondering why Ford had announced that the Escape wouldn’t be offered in CA and 5 other states due to “emissions”.
The big driving factor is that the PHEV won’t generate ZEV credits in those 6 states, while it still will in the slower on the uptake states of Californication. So by selling it in one of those states they earn ZEV credits (that can be applied in CA).
The other factor is that the Escape is not going to see a full 2026 production run. The plant was scheduled to be closed to retool for a new EV after the 2025 run. However the changing political landscape and consumer demand means they might as well crank out a few more since that is currently their only PHEV and Hybrid utility.
On the plus side the Escape going away means that there will be available capacity to make a Bronco Sport Hybrid and Maverick PHEV a strong possibility.
“On the plus side the Escape going away means that there will be available capacity to make a Bronco Sport Hybrid and Maverick PHEV a strong possibility.”
It has boggled my mind that, despite being on the same platform, neither the Bronco Sport or Maverick have a PHEV option yet.
Both would get serious consideration from me as I look to replace my 9 year old F150 – a great tool when I needed it, but murdering me now on the school run ($350/month CDN in gas) .
And if anything new is 100km-ish electric range? That’s almost a no-brainer.
Apparently transaxle plant capacity was a big limiting factor for both HEV and PHEV production and battery availability was limiting expanding PHEV availability as a lot of it is earmarked for the KUGA.
This is bad news. Longer and longer EV-only range misses the whole point of PHEVs, which is to reduce overall gas consumption using only a small battery. The 7 KWh battery in my Ford C-Max Energi nearly doubled the fuel economy from my identical Hybrid model when the battery was new and fresh. Now that it’s lost one-third capacity at 88,000 miles, it’s still getting 50+ MPG. It works by making all those short local trips, on a cold engine, into EV trips. The savings were much greater than I expected. The climate and the environment don’t care how many trips were finished in gas-hybrid mode. The important thing is to balance the gas and EV side so that lifetime emissions are minimized.
I love hybrids, but I don’t want to lug around an 800-pound battery on those short trips to the store, plus a gas engine.
Yup very short sighted on CA’s part to increase the minimum EV only range for PHEVs to qualify as ZEV vehicles. We had both versions of the C-Max and both are still in the family. My Daughter has the Energi and a 12 years and ~150k mi she is down to ~12mi of range but still has an over 50 mpg average.
Now we have an Escape PHEV and we have quite a few tanks with 150mpg or higher. Unless we do a road trip we rarely drop below 100mpg on a tank. For us a larger battery would probably account for less than a 10% increase in EV only trips. As it is we normally only charge to 80% for our daily driving and return home with some charge left.
So now CA (and other states) will have fewer PHEVs and those that they do get will be more expensive (reducing demand) and rarely be fully utilized.
Same here. My 2024 Prius Prime gets me to work on power alone and i can do more then half the trip back home in said power. The average, since new (i never resetted the trip counter) is standing at 98.ish mpg’s according to google (2.4l/100km). I could have bought a base Prius, it would have been nice to have AWD during winter but i wanted to slash fuel consumption, because around here the gas costs 1.60$ a liter, so the Prime got the nod! I don’t regret it one bit.
Edit: On the 800 pounds battery, Toyota once said they would be testing their Solid State battery on Hybrids first. Let’s hope they do it on the PHEV too. I’d love a bit more range (enough to make it to and from work would be nice) as much as i’d like less weight.
The prospect of better battery tech is another reason I’m not interested in today’s EVs.
CARB did a study using OBDII data direct from PHEV to see how much EV range is required to get a PHEV to 50% of the miles driven on electric. The EPA formula used for CAFE assumes 23 miles of range is needed to drive 50% of miles in electric mode. CARB’s real world data showed that it actually takes a PHEV with 57 mile of EV range to get to that 50% usage.
That took that into account when writing the rules for Advanced Clean Cars II
For statistical averages, that might be right. But there are many assumptions baked into that formula. For individual owners, it comes down to their usage pattern. My driving (and my wife’s) consists of 20-40 short trips under 25 miles, plus several 50-150 mile days per week. This must be close to ideal- over 150K total miles, my PHEV has gotten 58% better lifetime MPGs than an identical Hybrid version of the same car. I’ll take that as a win.
Regulators care about the statistical averages. Especially when they are awarding an automaker a $5,000 ZEV credit for making an PHEV.
The Escape has been a dead model walking ever since Jim Farley casually stated he wanted Ford to get away from ‘commodity vehicles.’ There was less than a snowball’s chance in Hell they were going to bother improving the battery capacity.
Yup, the writing has been on the wall for a couple of years. I believe they hadn’t intended to offer any 2026 versions at all. The plant it is built in is scheduled to be retooled to produce an EV. However changing politics and consumer sentiment seems to have pushed them to make a short run of 2026’s due to the consumer interest in HEVs and PHEVs.
That’s sad. The current Escape has one the very best profiles on the road. The lines remind me of an Aston Martin or Jag. But it was let down by a cheap interior and general unreliability. I considered buying one until I realized that no trim level, even Titanium, gave you a front seat with adjustable cushion angles.
Yeah that lack of seat angle adjustment is one of my biggest gripes about our 22 Escape PHEV. But there simply wasn’t a decent alternative that met my wife’s desire for a PHEV CUV. Yeah RAV-4 but waits were 6mos or more and the dealers around here weren’t shy with their ADP stickers at one point it was up to $10k at one local dealer. Plus per some studies I’ve read it turns out the 22 Escape PHEV is more “reliable” than the 22 RAV-4 prime. Also the Escape is actually more efficient in both EV and Hybrid modes.
Yeah… as others have said, the tile is misleading and the copy is misleading.
I appreciate bringing up the issue though. I think by the end of the article I understood.
Instead of cancelling it, couldn’t they just improve it by giving it a higher capacity battery?
The Escape – Gas, Hybrid, PHEV – is being discontinued. Production will stop at the end of 2025
And that’s a mistake in my view.
WOW! I really expect better from The Autopian.
We have a click bait headline, copy that say “and the Escape can’t hide its dirty drawers” also “In fact, the plug-in hybrid variant will be banned in six states next year because it won’t pass emissions tests. Yup, the clean-touting Escape PHEV isn’t so clean after all.”
But later in the article we discover ”as for the Escape, although its emissions could very well be within the particulate matter limits, it doesn’t travel far enough.”
The article needs to be re-written, from scratch, edited, and a new title developed… or just removed.
The article is fine.
Agree.
Thank you for your feedback; I’ve made the appropriate changes. That we did not live up to our typical editorial standards is on me as EIC.
If you happen to be in a state that won’t take the Escape PHEV as a PHEV, get a V8 Mustang, instead.
I don’t understand this one. We owned a plug-in Escape for a few years and it was basically an EV for us. We plugged it in when home and rarely used the gas engine. This feels more like a scenario where Ford may not be as incentivized to sell it vs the vehicle being too dirty to be sold.
The article is misleading and the author seems misinformed. It’s that Ford won’t sell it to people in these states, not that you can’t buy a used one there.
I once tried to buy an e-Golf from a New Jersey dealer and they told me they could t sell it to Pennsylvania, because they wanted it to stay in NJ for compliance reasons. Same thing.
The ACC II rules define a used vehicle as an odometer reading over 7500 miles, so they legally will not register one with 7k miles.
I strongly suspect this article is misinforming the public and needs to be corrected or taken down. Nothing in the sources suggests that the vehicles will be banned or cannot be registered. It would be scandalously bad policy to ban such cars while still allowing fully gasoline-powered vehicles.
The cars in question will not count toward the sales target for zero-emission vehicles. That means the automaker is not incentivized to sell them in these states. It doesn’t mean they’re banned.
It can be registered as a used vehicle, but it is a used vehicle if it has over 7500 miles. If it has 7000 miles it can not be registered, even if a 7000 mile used fully gas car can be. It really is that bad.
Anyone ever roll an odometer forward? Just claim over 7500 miles you will catch up in a month
You’re a dirty little hybrid, aren’t you? SAY IT!
How does this affect the Bronco Sport? Isn’t that technically an Escape variant as well?
Not offered as a hybrid or PHEV. Wish it was – I would have gotten one instead of the Escape PHEV I just bought.
I think the fact that the Escape is being discontinued gives hope that the Bronco Sport will soon get a Hybrid version. Ford has claimed they plan to increase the number of models available in a Hybrid version. The Escape going away will free up Hybrid components that will fit in the Bronco Sport with few or minimal changes required.
A PHEV version is another story though. The larger battery pack prevents mechanical rear drive, which is why the Escape PHEV is only offered in FWD. I don’t know if they are willing to do a FWD Bronco Sport. They could potentially use the Corsair’s rear drive unit but it would be much more expensive than mechanical.
Stopping the Escape and starting the Bronco doesn’t change the total available
No it doesn’t make more available but it does make that capacity available to make a Bronco Sport Hybrid. more Maverick Hybrids and/or a Maverick PHEV.
The 1981 Chevrolet B-bodies were built and sold with 5 different engines. Two were only available outside California, one was only available in California, and 2 were available in all 50 states. I guess we’ll be going back to the old days again.
They, the auto manufacturers, could simply do the right thing, and go with the standard does the most for public health and the future of the environment. Some already have.
That is more opinion than fact. Pricing out the poor people doesn’t strike me as the right thing here.
When did doing the right thing become an opinion? This is why we find ourselves in our current situation.
If you travel often, pay attention to the alcohol percentage of beers. I believe that 20 years ago Anheuser Busche made 13 variations of each budweiser to maximize profit vs state taxes and fees paid. Same thing with what is or isn’t sold in home depot or oreileys, and often if you find something labeled the same it’s a completely different formulation. And no, despite California stating that everything causes cancer, they don’t always have the worst version.
All safe here in Michigan tho…. 🙂
Just like the water in Flint!
I saw zero evidence that you couldn’t register a used one of these, just that they won’t help with Ford’s goals. I think it’s Ford that is unwilling sell the MY26 model in those six states.
I expect better of the Autopian.
That’s what I’m getting too. At most an owner would be denied free HOV lane access/other green-car perks but Ford’s battery supply is still constrained to a point where they don’t want to sell this model where they won’t get full credit for it.
I agree, that is the likely reason that they won’t sell it in the states where it doesn’t earn the full credit since they will have so few of them.
How do the states get to decide what vehicles get counted towards a federal goal?
It isn’t a federal goal, it is the state goals for those states of Californication that adopted the old CA standards but aren’t adopting the newer standards for 2026. So they have to count the Escape PHEV for their ZEV standards.
I don’t understand Ford’s lineup. Killing the escape does not make sense now they don’t have the Edge. They have no “lower” cost cars. Yes they have the Bronco and Maverick, but they need something like this and or the Puma to complete their lineup.
Bronco Sport is essentially an Escape with different styling, and better sales. Just wish they would offer a hybrid or PHEV version.
Ford launching this generation of Escape directly led to an immediate global collapse in sales. Ford gave it an extensive emergency facelift and basically relaunched it by completely changing the product stack for trim levels, but the damage was already done because the Bronco Sport had come out by then in the US and sucked all the air out of the room.
I think Ford got caught up in the changing political and consumer landscape with this one. The Escape was set to die to retool that plant to make an EV successor and they intended to steer the ICE customers to the Bronco Sport. Now the EV tax credit is going away and there are tariffs on the Bronco Sport.
Escape sales fell dramatically when this generation was introduced even when comparing first year to final year of previous generation and they only fell from there. Anecdotally, I hardly see them when previous generations were ubiquitous and, when I do, they’re usually municipal fleet vehicles. I think the problem was that they wanted it to replace the Focus (which, along with the Fiesta, the POS Ecosport had been intended to do, but failed) while also being the new Escape, probably assuming they had the Bronco Sport coming to satisfy the tough-looking crowd, so they could afford going softer with the Escape. Unfortunately, it was neither a car to please the Focus people nor fake-rugged enough looking for a CUV, especially compared to what it had been expected to look like within the market, and people bought Bronco Sports instead (or some competitor).
It sounds like people can register them, but they won’t count towards Ford’s ZEV credits like they used to. Probably a few others like the Outlander PHEV and RAV4 Prime, Prius Prime that no longer get the credit too, none of them get over 50 miles all electric.
Yet another case of unintended consequences that CA is blind to. There is a good possibility that other MFGs are going to follow Fords lead and fewer PHEVs will be available thanks to that 50 mi (Monroney) requirement. Even if they don’t completely stop sending them they are likely to want to send more to the states where they will maximize their ZEV credits.
ACA II rules were adopted in 2022 and don’t go into effect until 2026. Automakers had plenty of time to adapt.
Platform production cycles extend well beyond 4 years. The present C2 platform dates to 2018—pretty young in platform terms—and I would imagine that it has some similarities to the C1/CD4 predecessors it replaced (probably more the latter as that was the newer, larger platform). Not only would suddenly accommodating this be a major disruptor to planning of platform lifecycles, but adding a double-sized battery requires a major change to packaging. Developing a platform is in the billions. Ford is kind of playing a game here (though, with reported constraints to hybrid/EV production due to a shortage of battery materials, no longer selling these in states where they don’t get credits for them isn’t a dumb move, particularly on slower sellers like the Escape, presumably freeing up batteries for other vehicles in greater demand, like hybrid Mavericks), but it’s also not at all realistic to expect they could make large running changes to a platform that underpins quite a few models in such short order just to keep credits.
ACA II was officially finalized and adopted in 2022 – it has been in development with automakers for years before that. We have known the broad strokes for a long time as it is basically an extension of ACA 1. BTW – the extended range requirement doesn’t kick in until 2028
It is entirely realistic for automakers to make vehicles compliant with CARB rules as they apply to just over 40% of new vehicle sales in the USA and that percentage is growing.
Ford did not update the Escape because it is due to be discontinued.
ACC II wasn’t finalized until 2023, apparently as part of amendments via an executive order by Newsom, who wasn’t even in office when this platform was introduced, never mind when design would have actually started years earlier (usually about 5 years, which about lines up with predecessor CD4 making it to market). It’s reasonable to make them compliant in a reasonable timeframe depending upon how they match up to the platform’s scheduled replacement, assuming technical limitations to meeting the new standards. I agree they’re making no move to update the Escape because it’s being phased out due to low sales, but that doesn’t mean it would be a reasonable thing to expect a potentially major change to a platform. The Escape being their only PHEV and being only offered in unpopular FWD points to platform packaging challenges with the size of battery that it already has, never mind the challenge of essentially doubling its capacity (the platform-mate Maverick hybrid is also FWD-only despite customers screaming for an AWD version and that’s not even a PHEV).
For the 2025 MY the Maverick Hybrid is available with AWD. On introduction Ford did say they protected the space for the PHEV battery. And yes the reason the PHEV Escape is FWD only is because it occupies the space where the drive shaft runs for AWD. Electric rear drive as used in the Corsair PHEV was deemed too expensive for the Ford.
Cool, thanks for the HU! And, it’s about time. Oh well, my BiL already bought a Tacoma.
I have been personally working on products and platforms required to meet ACA II and the companion Medium and Heavy Duty regulations since 2021.
My employer is doing what is needed to meet the requirements – as would any automaker that wants to stay in business.
Yes but Ford had intended to drop the Escape after the 2025 MY. So yeah when they decided to delay the plant retool they decided to do a limited run of 2026’s. So no time to figure out how to increase the range sufficiently to comply and of course no ROI on tooling for a few months of production.
Which is why the Escape PHEV isn’t getting updated to meet ACA II rules.
Ford could still sell them – they just don’t get ZEV credits for them.
Correct – the article is completely wrong and the only change is that starting in 2026 Ford no longer gets CARB ZEV credits for selling the Escape PHEV.
The 2026 RAV4 PHEV will meet the new requirements for ACAII. It has a larger 22.7 kWh battery and a 50 mile EPA range.