Ford, Struggling in a Changing Industry, Replaces Its C.E.O.

Ford Motor said its chief executive, Jim Hackett, will retire on Oct. 1, ending a three-year run in which the automaker has worked with mixed results to streamline its operations and focus its business on electric cars, trucks and sport-utility vehicles.

Mr. Hackett, 65, will be succeeded by James D. Farley Jr., who had been named chief operating officer in February.

“I am very grateful to Jim Hackett for all he has done to modernize Ford and prepare us to compete and win in the future,” said William Clay Ford Jr., Ford’s executive chairman. The company, he added, is becoming “much more nimble.”

Mr. Hackett, a former chief executive of Steelcase, an office furniture manufacturer that is much smaller and less complex, was named to the top job at Ford in May 2017, as the company’s business was slumping. He promised to revitalize Ford’s operations and steer the company toward vehicles that would generate profits and invest in emerging technologies like electric and self-driving vehicles.