I'm pretty surprised (GASP!) that they would use the license plate number "SPRK EV1" in the animation, given all the awful publicity and feelings about the original EV1 car ('96 - '99).

As many of us pointed out in comments on the linked-to article, hybrid cars that are not plug-in are GAS-POWERED. That means that there are several mid-size hybrids with higher MPG than the Altima, including the Sonata, Camry, Fusion, and Prius.

If you can't count the Prius or the Fusion or the Camry or the Sonata, then you can't count the Chevy E-Assist cars either.

Rich is right, this article is pure drivel. These are sports cars. Duh!

I would like to know who is driving all these alleged highway miles? There is plenty of data out there showing average commute speeds of well under 40mph (e.g. http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~pgordon/pdf/commuting.pdf)
I am suspicious that emphasis on highway MPG has more to do with marketing than reality. I hate it when I see a car advertised as "36mpg" when its real-world city MPG is more like 17.
When you're on the highway and traffic is stop-and-go, guess what -- it's the city MPG that's more relevant.
I would like to see efficiency optimized in a given car _class_. This is starting to happen with mid-size sedans, with the Camry, Fusion, and Sonata all offering excellent city MPG.

My point of view: 2013 Escape a Let-down for this "City" driver!
I find the MPG rating for the 1.6L EcoBoost engine to be very disappointing.
Compare its City/Hwy of 23/33 to the new CR-V rating of 23/31, and the CR-V is still using it's ancient 2.4L engine design.
I do believe these type small SUVs are known to get lower City MPG than the EPA ratings, e.g. 16 for the CR-V in Consumer Reports. I wonder if the Escape with 1.6L EcoBoost will do better at delivering real-world real-world City MPG?
One other disappointing thing -- this is still a pretty heavy car at over 3500 lbs.