US carmaker Ford and its joint venture Changan Ford Mazda Automobile (CFMA) are planning to invest $760m to build a new assembly pant in Hangzhou, China.
The new assembly plant is expected to increase the production capacity by two fold in China to 1.2 million passenger cars annually by 2015.
According to the company, the Hangzhou plant will further complement Ford's existing manufacturing base in China.
The company said that the first vehicle to be built at the Hangzhou plant is expected to hit the Chinese market in 2015.
Ford Motor president and CEO Alan Mulally said, "This state-of-the-art facility will help us reach the goal of increasing worldwide sales nearly 50 percent by mid-decade to 8 million vehicles per year."
Ford Motor China chairman and CEO Dave Schoch said, "This new plant is an important part of our aggressive plan to bring 15 new vehicles and 20 new powertrains to China by 2015, giving customers here even more choice in Ford's next generation of high-quality, fuel-efficient, fun-to-drive vehicles."
Under the joint venture with CFMA, Ford is also planning to build an assembly and an engine plant in Nanjing, China.
The company is also planning to build another new assembly plant in Chongqing, where a new engine plant a well as a transmission plant are also under construction.
In addition, Ford is also launching a single manufacturing operating system to improve efficiencies and increase capacity utilisation.
