General Motors said today that it would invest $500 million, including more than $350 million at its plant in Lordstown, Ohio, to build the all-new compact Chevrolet Cruze.

The plan is part of the struggling automaker's campaign to replace slow-selling trucks with more fuel-efficient models just as oil prices begin to retreat from record highs.

Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner announced the investment today in Lordstown, where GM will begin building the Cruze in 2010. Ford Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. plan similar moves.

The race to supplant trucks with cars echoes the push in the 1990s to add sport-utility vehicle factories as gasoline below $1.25 a gallon made those trucks cheap to drive. The automakers are now planning to shut or reconfigure their truck plants as high fuel costs scare buyers away.

"Some of this might be overreacting to the recent dramatic increase in gasoline prices," said Rebecca Lindland, a forecaster for Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Mass. "Consumers are still going to buy the biggest SUV or car they can afford with the best mileage they can get."

GM on June 3 said it would cut about 700,000 from its North American truck production by shuttering four pickup and SUV plants by the end of 2010. The company also will bolster car output this year by 200,000 with the addition of a shift building Chevrolet Malibu sedans and another making the Chevy Cobalt.

When GM announced that plan, U.S. regular gasoline prices had risen 31 percent to $3.98. They peaked at $4.11 on July 16 before falling for the past five weeks.

The Lordstown plant, near Youngstown, opened in 1966. In the 1970s, it made the Vega small car, GM's answer to fuel-efficient Toyota and Honda Motor Co. models.