( dpa )- Ford Motor Co rolled out the second model of its small-car prototype - the Verve - Sunday at the Detroit auto show.
The four-door sedan, to be on the North American market by 2010, is smaller than the Focus, currently Ford's main small car. In September at the Frankfurt auto show, Ford introduced a three-door hatchback Verve prototype that is headed to the European and Asian markets later this year.
The Verve prototype was "a pretty clear window into our future," Jim Farley, Ford's worldwide marketing chief, was quoted as saying by the Bloomberg financial news agency.
After concentrating on pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles since the 1990s, Ford is trying to diversify US sales as the soaring price of fuel mutes demand for fuel-guzzling large vehicles. Ford expects US demand for smaller cars to rise 25 per cent between 2002 and 2012 to 3.4 million units a year, spokeswoman Charlotte Fisher told Bloomberg.