Ford Motor Co. expects to lose 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in Europe this year, cutting its capacity in the continent by nearly 20 percent and expects to save nearly half a billion dollars a year by closing three plants there, the company confirmed Thursday.

"While we are facing near-term challenges in Europe, we are fully committed to transforming our European business by moving decisively to match production to demand, improve revenue through new products and a stronger brand, improve our cost efficiencies and take advantage of opportunities to profitably grow our business," said Ford CEO Alan Mulally in an interview with local media.

Ford will cut about 6,200 hourly and salary employees and will shift production of vehicles from Genk in Belgium and Southampton in Britain to other European assembly plants, saving about 450 million to 500 million dollars annually, the company predicted.

Ford had been under pressure from investors to curb steep losses in Europe as the company previously had estimated it would lose about 1 billion dollars, but now said it would lose 1.5 billion dollars and expected a similar outlook for 2013.

The cost of closing plants will likely top 1 billion dollars, analysts projected. Ford estimated it will return to profitability in Europe by mid-decade.