Ford Motors said last night it was on track to meet its goal of making its North American auto business profitable by 2008.
"We remain very, very committed to this," Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, said at an event to announce the company's upcoming vehicle line-up and a push to offer more fuel-efficient vehicles.
The comments came after Ford stocks and bonds came under renewed selling pressure on speculation that the company could fall short of its 2008 target, which is part of a sweeping restructuring plan announced in January.
The US auto industry has been largely stagnant over the past two years, and analysts expect little progress in 2006.
Amid rising gasoline prices, the shift to smaller, fuel-efficient cars, away from heavy, gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles, has hit the Detroit automakers especially hard. Their market shares have declined, and their financial losses have risen as Japanese rivals have captured more and more of the US market.
Many Wall Street analysts and investors fear that Ford's turnaround is at risk of stalling due to a weak pipeline of new vehicles and an erratic product strategy.
Ford has pledged to slow the costly erosion of its market share this year, but some analysts say even that could be difficult, given the vehicles Ford intends to roll out and the intense competition in the market for trucks and SUVs, a segment that Ford relies on for profits.