Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co.'s Kansas City, Missouri, factory will suspend production of the Tribute sport- utility vehicle for affiliate Mazda Motor Corp. from May through the end of the year, the company said.

There won't be a 2007 model-year Tribute, Ford sales analyst George Pipas said today in an interview. The Kansas City plant also makes Ford Escapes and Mercury Mariners, small SUVs with the same basic design as the Tribute. At the end of April, the plant will stop making 2006 models of those vehicles and switch to building 2007 Escapes and Mariners, Pipas said.

The factory will begin making 2008 versions of all three models in January 2007, Pipas said. Jeremy Barnes, a spokesman for Mazda, declined to comment on why Mazda won't have 2007 Tributes produced. He said Hiroshima, Japan-based Mazda, a third owned by Ford, plans to keep the Tribute in its product lineup.

The Kansas City plant makes gasoline-powered versions of the small SUVs, as well as gasoline-electric hybrid versions of the Escape and Mariner. Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford plans to boost production of all its hybrids 10-fold to 250,000 a year by 2010.

Ford shares fell 6 cents to $8.39 at 4:02 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have declined 35 percent in the past 12 months.

To contact the reporter of this story: Bill Koenig in Southfield, Michigan, at wkoenig@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 21, 2006 16:16 EST