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Ford has announced plans to revise its North American car and truck production targets for the rest of 2008 in line with changes in market demands. And it is forecasting that its profit goals for North American operations have to be revised.

The changes will see the group make more of the smaller vehicles such as Focus, Fusion, Edge and Escape cars and fewer of the higher-consumption SUVs and large trucks.

President and CEO Alan Mulally said: "The challenge affecting the entire industry is the accelerating shift in consumer demand away from large trucks and SUVs to smaller cars and crossovers – combined with a steep rise in commodity prices and the weak US economy."

Ford now says it will produce 690,000 vehicles in the second quarter, a cut of 20,000 from the previous plan and a decline of 15 per cent from the production level a year ago.

Third quarter production will be between 510,000 and 540,000 units, down 15 to 20 per cent on a year ago, while fourth quarter production is now scheduled to be between 590,000 and 630,000, down by between 2 and 8 per cent on 2007.

The move into smaller vehicles will have a direct impact on profitability in North America, said Mark Fields, president for Ford of the the Americas.

He said: "Unless there is a fairly rapid turnaround in US business conditions, which we are not anticipating, it now looks like it will take longer than expected to achieve our North American profitability goal. Overall, we expect to be about break-even companywide in 2009, with continued strong results in Europe and South America."

Ford said it expected to make changes to its manufacturing capacity in line with the changed market mix.

• Ford said it would "express no opinion" on moves by the corporate raider and private investor Kirk Kerkorian to acquire a 1 per cent stake in the group through his Tracinda Corporation. Kerkorian tried to buy Chrysler more than a decade ago and has been linked in recent years to moves to pair General Motors off with Renault and with Ford.