Just two years from now, a mere 10 percent of the vehicles rolling off Ford assembly lines and into North American showrooms will be sedans and sports cars like the Taurus or Mustang. The rest will be pickups, SUVs and commercial vehicles — more lucrative models that the company hopes will secure its future as change tears through the global auto industry.

What would Henry Ford think? What might seem like a radical departure for Ford has, in fact, been years in the making. The fuel-price shock that left Detroit on its knees during the Great Recession didn’t last, and American consumers have gone right back to buying sport utility vehicles and big trucks like the bread-and-butter F-Series.