Ford (NYSE:F) Plowing $600 Million into Louisville SUV Plant

Now that Ford (NYSE:F) has recently become the most profitable automaker in the world, they're pushing expansion, and are ready to invest $600 million into a Louisville plant which will eventually produce an additional 1,800 jobs. They're going to produce sport-utility vehicles at the plant

At this time the plant manufactures the midsize Ford Explorer SUV, and will expand to a new version of the Escape compact utility vehicle. That is expected to begin sometime in the latter part of 2011.

Once production begins a total of 2,900 employees will work on two shifts, up from the current 1,100 working one shift.

Ford is taking a page from Honda Motor (NYSE:HMC) and Toyota motor (NYSE:TM), transforming the Louisville plant into a flexible factory, which means they will be able to product a variety of vehicles. When completed, it'll be the most flexible factory under the Ford banner.

This is of course a move to compete directly with Honda and Toyota.

Honda was trading at $37.64, up $0.38, or 1.02 percent, as of 1:25 PM EST. Toyota was at $77.92, down $0.44, or 0.56 percent. Ford was trading at $16.77, up $0.08, or 0.48 percent.