Ford is building a fifth Chinese factory that will double its local production capacity as the automaker, far behind the sales of General Motors, plans to introduce 15 new models to China by 2015.

When complete in 2015, the $760 million plant in Hangzhou will increase annual Chinese production to 1.2 million cars -- which, if operating at capacity, would account for 15 percent of Ford's global sales. By then, the company says it wants to sell at least 8 million cars per year, a 45 percent increase from 2011, and expects nearly 70 percent of this growth to come from Asian countries.

During the first quarter of 2012, Ford sold just over 121,000 cars in China, while General Motors, long revered in China for the Buick brand once favored by several historic Chinese figures, sold more than six times that number. In 2011, Ford's Chinese sales totaled about half a million.

Ford is moving fast. In February, the automaker opened a second plant in Chongqing to build the Focus, and two weeks earlier it announced a $350 million investment to expand production by 350,000 cars in the first Chongqing plant. In March, Ford said it would build two plants in India by 2014 for a total price of $1 billion.

"These are incredibly exciting times for Ford in Asia,” said Joe Hinrichs, president of Ford Asia Pacific and Africa, in a press release. “So far, Ford’s investments in China and across Asia represent its largest and most rapid global expansion in fifty years."

Later this month, Ford will introduce the new Focus, Focus ST, Escape, and another vehicle at the Beijing Auto Show.

[Source: Ford]