With SUV and large truck sales constantly declining, Ford Motor Company has no other option than to shift its focus to passenger cars. As part of the company’s plan to boost North American small-car production, the American automaker announced today that it will invest $75 million in its Michigan Truck Plant’s body shop to prepare it for car production. Work at the plant will begin in November when Ford starts moving the tooling equipment specific to the Expedition and Lincoln Navigator to the Kentucky Truck Plant, which begins producing the large SUVs in mid-2009. The move will open the way for Michigan Truck’s plant to be retooled to a car plant that will begin producing global C-car based vehicles in 2010. -Continued
As for the Michigan plant’s 1,000 employees, Ford said that they will be transferred next door to Wayne Assembly Plant where a third crew will be added in January to accommodate increased production of the Focus.