Ford is working on plans to shift entire truck plants to car production in a bid to keep up with changing consumer demand in the United States, sources familiar with the company’s plans told a Michigan newspaper.
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Plant managers and local union leaders from around the country have been summoned to Ford’s Dearborn headquarters on Friday, the Detroit News said.
The paper said, in what would be one of the most dramatic manufacturing transformations in Detroit’s history, Ford would retool some of its North American plants to produce vehicles being built in Europe, where it is a leader in the small-car segment. The automkaer also is conducting a thorough review of its entire product plans in North America, hoping to accelerate the introduction of new, more fuel-efficient cars and to build more vehicles on fewer platforms.
“The best place to look is Europe,” CEO Alan Mulally told the Detroit News recently, acknowledging that it would be too costly for Ford to import cars from across the Atlantic because of unfavourable exchange rates. “We can tailor the production to where we sell them.”
The paper said details of the plan are expected to be announced in July and would likely include major moves like converting the Avon Lake, Ohio, assembly plant from production of the older E-series van to the more modern and fuel-efficient Transit Ford builds in Europe. But sources familiar with the situation have said the company will not reveal the full scope of its manufacturing realignment for several months.
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By GlobalDataThe Detroit News said, when the plan is complete, Ford expects to build more models on fewer platforms than any other automaker – including Toyota which has made such simplicity a recipe for success.
The paper noted that Ford CEO Alan Mulally is said to have vetoed all opposition, calling this rapid transformation vital to the automaker’s survival.
Though sources stressed to the Detroit News that final details are still being debated and are subject to change, they said the company plans to build the F-100, a new lighter and more fuel-efficient version of the top-selling F-150 pickup, at the Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, which makes the large Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs that have seen sales collapse with rising fuel prices. Ford will continue to produce those vehicles on the same line, potentially adapting them to the F-100’s smaller frame.
Louisville assembly plant, which makes the traditional body-on-frame Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer SUVs, will be transformed into a unibody facility capable of producing cars, car-based crossovers or both at the same time.
Ford would neither confirm nor deny the moves to the Detroit News. “We’re not going to comment on future model cycle plan discussions,” said Ford spokesman Said Deep.
But Deep told the paper the automaker would make the investments necessary to hold onto its decades-long lead in full-size pickups, and would still have the capacity available to respond when truck sales rebound, which analysts consider inevitable.
