DEARBORN, Mich. — Bleeding cash and with its very survival uncertain, American automaking icon Ford will try to import some of its success from across the Atlantic.
Ford reported its worst-ever quarterly loss Thursday and announced plans to bring over six small, fuel-efficient cars it makes in Europe and start selling them in North America, where Ford is losing billions on its truck-heavy lineup.
The company burned through nearly $11 billion of its cash stockpile in the past year and reported a second-quarter loss of $8.7 billion.
Ford lost $3.88 per share in the April-June quarter, compared with net profit of $750 million, 31 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.
Ford is trying to save itself by quickly morphing from a truck company into a car company. But the help from Europe won’t arrive until 2010. It takes time to retool U.S. plants, and importing the cars directly is too costly.
Industry watchers wonder whether Ford has enough cash to survive until then.
“You have the gap before the plan can be fully executed,” said Jeff Schuster, executive director of global forecasting for J.D. Power and Associates. “You kind of have to weather the conditions, and you have to weather the fact that you’re still the old company in transition.”
Ford has successfully sold cars in Europe for years, and it made billions of dollars selling trucks to Americans. But U.S. drivers have recoiled this year from high gas prices and bolted for smaller cars.
Past efforts by U.S. automakers to bring in European cars have flopped, but Ford chief executive Alan Mulally said the U.S. market as vastly different today, with gas at $4 and consumers cleaning showrooms out of small cars.
“They want the vehicles to be neat and have a lot of features,” Mulally told reporters and industry analysts Thursday on a conference call. “We have seen this and the success of this in Europe and around the world.”
Shifting gears: Ford factory changes
Michigan truck: Will continue to build Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs until the end of this year, then be retooled to build the new European Focus compact or other small cars starting in 2010.
Louisville, Ky., assembly: Will be retooled from Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer SUVs to make vehicles on the European Focus frame in 2011.
Kentucky truck (Louisville): Now makes Super Duty pickup trucks. Will add production of Expedition and Navigator early next year.
Twin Cities assembly (St. Paul, Minn.): Was slated to close next year, but will remain open through 2011 because of demand for the Ranger small pickup, whose sales are down just 4 percent in the first half of this year, versus 18 percent for the U.S. light-truck market as a whole.
