Ford is to close its 'Ingeni' London design centre, which it opened in 2001 to produce work on both automotive and non-automotive products.

Financial constraints were given as the reason for the closure, news of which followed hot on the heels of Nissan's expansion of its Paddington European design centre. The 30 designers working at Ingeni are to be redeployed elsewhere in Ford's European design operations. It has also been reported in US media that Ford's US Special Vehicle Team is to be disbanded temporarily, with no new special performance models due to be launched there until the 2006 model-year. Ford has just announced that just over 100 units of the new GT40 replica are to be imported to European markets.