Ford To Drastically Shift Production Away From SUVs

New York Times:

The Ford Motor Company, which devoted itself for nearly 20 years to putting millions of Americans into big pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles, is about to drastically alter its focus to building more small cars.

The struggling automaker, reacting to what it sees as a rapid and permanent shift in consumer tastes brought on by high gas prices, plans to unveil its new direction on Thursday, when it will report quarterly earnings.

Among the changes, Ford is expected to announce that it will convert three of its North American assembly plants from trucks to cars, according to people familiar with the plans.

And as part of the huge bet it is placing on the future direction of the troubled American auto industry, Ford will realign factories to manufacture more fuel-efficient engines and produce six of its next European car models for the United States market.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[MetalCanuck]

Teslamotors.com

these cars use energy equal to a car that used gas at 256 miles per gallon.

[EinChicago]

And they are flimsy plastic death traps. The problem is building a safe electric vehicle.

[MetalCanuck]

Where do you get that? Who says they are flimsy...d­id ya drive one? Are you an oil exec?

[MetalCanuck]

35 mpg is hardly enough..th­at the "new" standard. Its better in Europe. We need ELECTRIC CARS like...

teslamotors.com

They are equal to 135 MPG when it comes to energy consumption.

[wagadog]

They could have figured THAT out 30 years ago, during the FIRST oil crisis. Sheesh.

This is what happens when you let white men run the show -- and let white men bail out other white men.

Utter and complete self-serving stupidity.

This is not news. We're used to it by now.

[walk0nwalls]

Something that should've happened a long time ago.

You know the non-stupid part of America doesn't measure their self-worth in the size of their cars.

[johnfoirdfw]

And once again, labor gets to take the hit for the fools in the front office who are busily lining their pockets...

[nirek]

When they have an electric pickup I'll buy a new vehicle, not until.

[EinChicago]

Check out phoenix motors.

[wsblake]

Amerikan Korporations- they're always just so way out ahead on that thinking curve, aren't they?

[GetTheFreakOuttaHere]

Hurray!!!! (But, as others have pointed out, duhhhhhhhhh!!!!)

[philinmedford]

Breaking Headline: Henry Ford closes Conestoga wagon factory to focus on horseless carriage.

[sojtruth]

Um, DUUUHHHHHH!? Might be just a little too late, unless Ford is willing to promote its far more gas sipping models you sell elsewhere in the world.

[DrPaulProteus]

And you wonder why we're in the mess we're in, with these sorts of short-term minded captains of industry at the helm. Geniuses.

[NotaBeliever]

The walls have been written upon any number of times since the Carter administration. Our car manufacturers chose to side with the petroleum interests and keep us indentured to their shortsightedness. BUY AMERICAN! When the Prius came out and people were waiting a year and more for delivery, the walls were screaming with the news: WE WANT FUEL EFFICIENT VEHICLES!!! Personally, I'd love a really high MPG SUV ... I haul stuff ... but I'm driving a '93 Jeep Cherokee which I've vowed to keep driving until I can replace it with a high MPG vehicle ... and I'm don't mean 30 MPG ... I mean more like 50 MPG ... because I know they can do it if they try hard enough and if enough of us hold out for the real goods. Money is power, and Jeeps last forever if you just nurse 'em along ...

[helonias]

So all the idiot Ceos at ford who got them to this point will resign for the good of the company

[TurgidCaterwauling]

Small, stylish, and fuel effecient Fords are found all over Mexico and Europe. Why not in the U.S.?

[KillTheMessenger]

I saw something really interesting yesterday: A lot with used Hummers. Not one, not two, not even half the cars were Hummers. All of them were! And it wasn't a Hummer dealership. No, Sir. It was an ordinary used car dealer. Not sure what he was thinking..­. maybe he was thinking that among all of his sales lots, this one was losing the least amount of money on displaying cars that will never sell.

I almost took pity on him and went in... What do you think the response would have been to:

"I'll give you $18 for the yellow one. Take it or leave it.".

:-)