Ford Aims to Double Market Share in China

Ford Motor Co. expects to capture 6% of the Chinese auto market by 2015 compared with about 3% now, according to the company's Asia sales chief David Schoch.

Ford predicts China will account for 40% of its global sales by the end of the decade, presumably surpassing the U.S.

China overtook the U.K. last year to become the company's second-largest market. Now Ford sales there are nearly double those in Britain, according to the company.

In the first quarter of 2013, Ford's volume in China soared 54% to 186,700 vehicles still less than one-quarter the sales of market-leader General Motors Co.

Ford, a latecomer to China, is spending $4.9 billion to expand its vehicle lineup there and more than double capacity to 1.6 million passenger and commercial vehicles by 2015.

The company's top executives say they now devote at least one-third of their time to China about the same amount of attention that Europe and the Americas each get compared with 10% a few years ago.