Ford to retool factories, focus on smaller cars

The company now plans to bring even more vehicles over from Europe and produce them in North America, according to the person briefed on the plans. They could include the Kuga small crossover vehicle, the Transit Connect and C-Max small vans and the next-generation Mondeo midsize car, which likely would replace the current Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan.

Some factories, the person said, will be retooled to produce more fuel-efficient four- and six-cylinder engines and more efficient transmissions for the new vehicles.

Also, to meet high demand for the current Focus small car, Ford will retool part of the Michigan Truck plant in the Detroit suburb of Wayne to build Focus bodies. The bodies would then be shipped next door to the Wayne Assembly plant, where the Focus is made, the person said. Ford has been trying to crank out more Focuses at the Wayne Assembly plant, but analysts have said its body shop can’t move as quickly as the rest of the factory, and that has slowed production.

Production of the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs, which are currently made at the Michigan Truck plant, would be moved to another location, likely the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, which builds Ford F-250 and F-550 Super Duty pickup trucks.

Rocky Comito, president of the UAW local in Louisville that represents workers at the plant, said Tuesday he hadn’t been told of any changes, although Ford promised new products for the truck plant and the Louisville Assembly plant in its national UAW contract reached last year.

“We tell them we’ll build whatever they bring us,” Comito said.

Greg Gardner, an analyst for the consulting firm Oliver Wyman, which publishes the annual Harbour Report on auto manufacturing, said converting an auto plant’s operations from trucks to cars is no easy feat and could easily cost tens of millions of dollars per factory. But the changeover is critical, he said, since Ford has lost small-car sales because it didn’t have enough inventory.

“You can’t use the same conveyor system for trucks as you can for cars,” Gardner said. “There’s some equipment, like torque wrenches and things like that ... those are common to any vehicle. But really heavy-duty capital equipment has to be different.”

But it’s unclear if Wall Street will be satisfied with Ford’s latest plan. Brian Johnson, an analyst with Lehman Brothers, said Tuesday in a note to investors that Ford still has too much North American plant capacity and needs to close plants.

Ford shares rose 36 cents, or 6.6 percent, to $5.84 Tuesday.

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