Ford will invest at least $75 million to begin converting a Michigan SUV plant to small car production as part of its strategic shift to sell more of the fuel-efficient vehicles in North America. The 51 year old plant is located in Wayne, Michigan and is currently used to build the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs. Begining in November, Ford will start moving equipment to build the big SUVs to the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, which currently makes Super Duty F-series trucks. The move will clear space for Michigan’s truck body shop to be retooled to make Focus bodies. The Michigan factory will be converted entirely to a car plant in 2010.
The changes are part of Ford’s plan to build more small cars in response to the rapid U.S. market shift away from trucks and SUVs. For the past few months, Ford has said it has not been able to build Focuses fast enough.
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