Ford Motor Co., the second-largest U.S.-based automaker, said it’s scheduling overtime at a Missouri plant to keep up with increased demand for the Escape small sport-utility vehicle.

“The plant is running at full capacity,” Dave Finnegan, marketing manager for the Escape, told reporters earlier this week at a briefing in Pinckney, Mich. Overtime work at the factory near Kansas City has continued since late last year, he said.

Ford is producing more of the small SUVs as Escape U.S. sales rose 9.6 percent to 59,299 this year through April. The model has moved past the mid-size Explorer as the automaker’s best-selling sport-utility vehicle. As gasoline prices have surged to record highs, smaller SUVs such as the Escape and Honda’s CR-V have gained sales while larger models have declined.

In a similar reflection of the consumer shift to more fuel-efficient vehicles, Ford said last month that it was boosting production of the Focus small car at a Wayne, Mich., plant. Focus sales rose 29 percent this year through April.

Finnegan declined to forecast 2008 sales for the Escape. The company’s briefing today was on 2009 versions of the Escape and similar Mercury Mariner, which go on sale in July.

The 2009 models will have a new 2.5-liter engine and six-speed automatic transmission that the company said will improve efficiency by about 1 mile per gallon from the 2.3-liter, four-speed automatic transmission in 2008 models. Ford also sells 3-liter, V6 versions of the SUVs.