Carmaker Ford tonight posted the kind of losses usually reserved these days for banks.

Taking its place as the latest of the US car giants to suffer from flagging demand for its gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles (SUVs), Ford reported a quarterly loss of $8.7 billion (£4.3 billion).

All the big carmakers are suffering heavy losses in the US as drivers facing higher fuel costs switch to more energy-efficient vehicles.

The losses were even bigger than analysts had feared, sparking a 7% fall in its share price.

The Detroit giant also declared it was restructuring its North American divisions to reduce its reliance on pick-up trucks and 4x4 SUVs.

More small cars will be launched and three truck plants will be converted to make cars. Only last week, Toyota announced it was switching one of its truck-making plants to make the Prius petrol-electric hybrid.

Ford today said it would bring more of its European models over to the US and would double the number of hybrids it produces.

Ford's huge deficit came as it wrote down the value of its truck and SUV division.

It warned the US economy would not turn around until 2010.