Ford will shift production at its SUV plant in Michigan to a small-car production facility in order to increase the sales of fuel-efficient vehicles.

The £75 million development will see the equipment used to make SUVs moved to the Kentucky Truck Plant.

Joe Hinrichs, Ford's manufacturing chief, said that investment would add new tools to the body shop at the plant as well as updating the assembly line.

Alan Mulally, Chief Executive of Ford, is planning to turn the fortunes of the automaker around and sees smaller cars as a better investment in light of declining sales in the SUV segment.

It is also answering the calls for cleaner motor cars by introducing six of its European models in the US from 2010, as well as the redevelopment of the production plants.

The Fiesta subcompact car will be produced in a plant in Mexico during 2010, the Wall Street Journal revealed.



Source:

Ford SUV Plant to Shift to Smaller Vehicles, 27/08/08
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121977159225673335.html?mod=googlenews_wsj