Ford to Accelerate Pace of Vehicle Introductions

Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday that it would increase the pace of product launches as it accelerates its restructuring and considers investing as much as $1 billion in its Michigan factories.

Ford, which is battling shrinking U.S. market share and rising costs, has said it will announce details of the updated plan by the end of September to respond to the weakening demand for large sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks in the U.S. market.

The automaker, which posted a second-quarter net loss of $254 million and has hired an outside financial advisor, has said it will close 14 plants and cut as many as 30,000 factory jobs to return its North American unit to profitability by 2008.

Mark Fields, president of Ford’s operations in the Americas, said the accelerated restructuring would broadly follow the plan the company announced in January dubbed Way Forward.

“Acceleration doesn’t mean a new plan. It means a new timetable,” he said in a speech here at the Management Briefing Seminars, an annual gathering of auto industry executives.

“But I can confirm that our plans do include more new products, and sooner; quicker and deeper cost cutting; and more metrics to measure us by,” Fields said.

Nine new Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models will go on sale in the next six months, including the Ford Shelby GT 500, a high-performance version of the Mustang, he said.

Ford also plans to launch the Lincoln MKS flagship sedan in 2008, based on a concept vehicle shown in January at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

The company has faced criticism for the pace of its vehicle launches, which has left it exposed to the weakening market for SUVs and pickups.

Erich Merkle, director of forecasting for market research firm IRN Inc., said that Ford needed the new products but added that a fuller revamping of its lineup would take far longer.

“You can accelerate things by a couple months, but you are not going to take product from scratch and bring it to market in 24 months,” he said.

Fields said the auto industry was undergoing a “tectonic” shift as motorists shift to more fuelefficient vehicles. The shift in demand from big trucks in the last year has cost the U.S. auto industry $8 billion in lost revenue, he said.

“The old saying ‘If you build it, they will buy it’ needs to be put to rest,” Fields said. “ ‘If they will buy it, we will build it’ is the way we need to approach the future.”

Shares of Ford fell 4 cents to $7.33.