Ford Motor Co, which makes half as many cars in China as General Motors Corp, plans to spend as much as US.5 billion to expand production and boost market share in the world's fastest-growing auto market.

　　Ford will build a second plant and expand its factory in the southwestern city of Chongqing that makes Mondeo and Fiesta cars, Chief Executive Officer William Clay Ford Jr told reporters in Beijing.

　　The Dearborn, Michigan-based company will also build an engine-making plant in China.

　　Ford, General Motors, Volkswagen AG and Toyota Motor Corp are expanding local production to meet rising demand from increasingly wealthy Chinese urban residents. Car sales may expand by a quarter this year, compared with a 4.3 percent drop in western Europe and a 3 percent slump in North America, according to London-based World Markets Research Center.

　　"They (Ford) need to expand to catch up with other automakers," said Mei Luwu, an analyst at Penhua Fund Management in Shenzhen. "But they'd better bring in more up-to-date models, as General Motors have done, instead of introducing old ones."Ford, along with its venture partner Chongqing Chang'an Automobile Co, plans to triple pro-duction at their Chongqing plant to 150,000 units a year, Ford said. It also plans to improve technology and introduce new models in China, the company added.

　　Ford's factory was designed to make as many as 50,000 Mondeos and Fiestas a year. The world's second-biggest carmaker said it wants to boost production to capture vehicle sales in China, which are forecast to triple to 5.8 million units by 2010, according to McKinsey & Co.

　　"Every carmaker is expanding in China because the car market grows at an average 50 percent every month," said Gu Qun, who tracks carmakers at Automotive Resources Asia Ltd, an industry consultant, in Shanghai. "It makes sense to expand."

　　General Motors said in July it will share a 2 billion yuan (US million) investment with its partner Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp to quadruple production to 400,000 units by 2007.Volkswagen, which counts China as its biggest sales market after Germany, said in July it will invest 6 billion euros (US.8 billion) in the next five years to double production to 1.6 million units.

　　Toyota has set aside 45 billion yen (US million) to expand output in China to 400,000 units by 2010, and wants to capture 10 percent of the country's car market by then.Ford started making cars in China in January, four years after General Motors started making Buick cars in Shanghai.

　　Volkswagen, which makes two out of five cars on Chinese roads, started producing vehicles in Shanghai in 1985.

　　"The automotive future of China is very bright and we are participating fully in its growth," Ford said in Beijing. "We can bring more products to the rapidly expanding market."

　　Ford invested US million with Chongqing Chang'an Automobile Co to build a factory near the Yangtze River. General Motors and its Chinese partner spent a combined US.6 billion on their first venture.