Ford Motor Co. is canceling controversial plans to build the Focus small car in Mexico, saving $1 billion by ending North American production of the model entirely and importing it mostly from China after next year. The U.S. automaker will start making the next-generation Focus in China from the second half of 2019, a year after output ends at one of its plants in Michigan. Ford will trim about $500 million in costs by shifting production to China, adding to the $500 million already saved from canceling construction of a small-car factory in Mexico earlier this year. The move is the first major decision Ford has announced under Chief Executive Officer Jim Hackett and marks a complete break from the strategy of his ousted predecessor, Mark Fields, to relocate small car production to Mexico. The company will be testing both consumer appetite for China-built cars and the tolerance of President Donald Trump, who has criticized automakers for importing vehicles from overseas. “We’ve done a lot of research and consumers care a lot more about the quality and the value than they do about the sourcing location,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of global operations, said Tuesday in a conference call with reporters. “iPhones are produced in China, for example, and people don’t really talk about it.” U.S. Investment Ford announced the Focus production plans along with a separate, $900 million investment it’s making in a Kentucky truck factory to build Expedition and Lincoln Navigator sport utility vehicles. News of that spending will preserve 1,000 jobs and could help insulate Hackett, 62, from the attacks Trump levied against the automaker during the tenure of ex-CEO Fields. “China gets a lot of attention, we’ll see how this plays out,” Hinrichs said in response to a question about possible criticism of the move from Trump. “But we believe this is a much better plan for our business globally. And it frees up from the original plan about $1 billion of capital that we can reinvest in the business, including exciting things that we’re working on in autonomy and electrification, and a lot of that work is done right here in the U.S.” Both Ford and General Motors Co. management have come under pressure this year to boost their flagging share prices. Executive Chairman Bill Ford replaced Fields, 56, with Hackett while GM CEO Mary Barra has engineered exits from Europe and India. Ford may follow suit in abandoning sizable markets where the manufacturer struggles to make money. “We wouldn’t be surprised if Ford announces further moves in the coming months,” Joe Spak, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said in note to clients. “The next announcement could be an exit from the Indian market, something the company has alluded to.” Ford slipped 0.8 percent to $11.15 as of 1:21 p.m. in New York trading. The shares have declined 8 percent this year, while GM’s have dropped 1.2 percent. Both have trailed the 9.2 percent gain for the benchmark S&P 500 Index. SUV Boom Hackett is shaking up Ford’s Focus production plans as American consumers increasingly shun small cars and opt for roomier crossovers and SUVs. Focus deliveries have slumped 20 percent this year and have been in decline annually since 2012, as more buyers opt for utilities like the Escape or Explorer models. After importing initial production of the new Focus cars from China, Ford said it will later ship variants of the model from Europe. The Michigan Assembly Plant now making the Focus will be retooled to produce the Ranger midsize pickup in late 2018 and the Bronco midsize SUV in 2020. The move doesn’t signal a broader shift of other Ford models to China, where workers are paid less than they are in Mexico, Hinrichs said. “Labor costs are cheaper in China than they are in Mexico, but of course you have to take into account the shipping costs, which are significantly higher from China,” Hinrichs said. “So I wouldn’t say this is a variable cost decision. It’s still cheaper to build in Mexico than China for the North American market if you have the capacity.” Net Exporter Ford will remain a net exporter to China, even after it begins importing Focus models to the U.S., Hinrichs said. The automaker expects to export more than 80,000 vehicles to China this year, including Michigan-built Mustang sports cars and Lincoln Continental luxury sedans. That should help protect Ford should Congress implement a border tax on imported goods, Hinrichs said. “We expect to continue to be a net exporter and have a trade surplus with China even after we start bringing the Focus in,” he said. “We think the significant capital savings outweigh any of the risks associated with any adjustments to the border.”