Volvo has no plans for U.S. car production: chief

PARIS (Reuters) - The head of Ford Motor Co's Volvo on Thursday ruled out building cars in the United States "in the foreseeable future" despite painful exchange rates that have pressured its results.

"There is too much underutilized capacity in the two plants that we have," Stephen Odell, who took over as president and chief executive of Volvo on Wednesday, told Reuters at the Paris Auto Show.

"You have to look at how to utilize that capacity before you think about switching it ... I don't think North American production is the right thing to do," Odell said.

Odell's comments reverse an earlier position taken by Swedish predecessor Fredrik Arp, who had said publicly that Volvo had explored the possibility of building cars in the United States.

(Reporting by Christiaan Hetzner via Detroit newsroom, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)