One problem related to engine failure has been reported for the 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid based on all problems reported for the 2008 Escape Hybrid.
While driving at highway speeds for about 20 minutes, the gasoline engine died and a warning light came on saying to pull off the road safely. There was no other warning light (no high temperature warning). I drove slowly on electrical engine power until there was a safe place to pull off the road. After a few minutes parked there with the car turned off, I tried to start the car again. It started and I was able to drive home. I took the car to a dealer and he could see no reports in the computer and no evident cause for the engine to fail. He said to watch the temperature gauge. However, there is not a constant temperature gauge - it only comes up on the screen when there is a problem (and it did not come up when the engine failed). A week later, again on a longer drive (more than 20 minutes) at highway speeds, the car stalled and I was forced to pull over. The danger of pulling over on a multilane freeway is very scary. Over the next 30 minutes, I re-started the car and pulled back into traffic, only to have the gas engine die 5 more times. Eventually I was able to get home and take the escape in to a Ford dealership. The dealership immediately diagnosed it as a failure of the coolant pump and replaced it for $500. The mileage of my car was about 53,000 miles.