March 7 (Bloomberg) — Ford Motor Co., which plans to cease making the Econoline van later this year, will revive the Ohio factory where the vehicle is made by investing $168 million to move pickup production there from Mexico early in 2015.

Production of Ford's commercial F-650 and F-750 medium-duty pickups will move from a plant in Escobedo, Mexico, to Avon Lake, Ohio. Ford had operated a Mexican-based joint-venture with Navistar International Corp. known as the Blue Diamond Trucking Co. The automaker is cutting those ties to take full control of production, design and engineering of its top-selling F-series pickups, Joe Hinrichs, Ford's president of the Americas, said in an interview.

Ford derives most of its profit from its F-Series truck line, Morgan Stanley has said. The second-biggest U.S. automaker sold 763,402 such vehicles last year, including 8,682 medium-and heavy-duty pickups, up 18 percent from 2012. Later this year, the company will debut an aluminum-bodied F-150 pickup, to be followed early in 2015 with redesigned versions of the F-650 and F-750, still featuring steel bodies.