Ford will invest $760m to build a new plant in eastern China as part of a drive to catch up with global rivals General Motors and Volkswagen in the world’s largest car market.
Ford’s new plant in Hangzhou, in the rich entrepreneurial belt of China’s Zhejiang province, will help the company double capacity to reach 1.2m vehicles by 2015, the company said. Ford said the move was part of the company’s “largest expansion in 50 years”, aimed at boosting global sales by 50 per cent from 2010 to about 8m vehicles a year by mid-decade.
VW and GM were early entrants in China and remain far more powerful there. Ford formed its first joint venture in China only just over a decade ago, while VW has been producing cars in China since the 1980s.