Given that the Ford Escape and Mazda Tribute are sisters under the skin, it's perhaps surprising that Mazda didn't introduce its first gas-electric Hybrid vehicle sooner.

It's here now, though, as part of a comprehensive 2008 revamp that the whole Tribute line shares with the Escape (see separate profile for other Tribute models). Mazda is calling its own version the Tribute HEV, as in Hybrid Electric Vehicle.

The HEV is a "full" hybrid, like the Escape, which shares the technology (much of which, in turn, was licensed from Toyota). Thus, the Tribute HEV can run near-silently on 100-percent electric power up to about 40 km/h, for brief periods, maximizing in-city fuel economy.

In electric mode, power is delivered by a permanent magnet AC synchronous electric motor, producing 70 kW at 5,000 rpm and 330 maximum volts. When additional power is required, the HEV's 2.3-litre DOHC Atkinson-cycle four-cylinder engine seamlessly engages, contributing up to 133 hp at 6,000 rpm and 124 lb-ft of torque at 4,250 rpm. A continuously-variable transmission helps keep it all working in harmony.

Under deceleration, the motor becomes a generator, recapturing kinetic energy and converting it to electricity to recharge the batteries.

The engine and motor combined make 155 hp, giving acceleration between four- and six-cylinder Tributes.

All that hybrid goodness

All those nagging hybrid question marks