Crossovers helped transform Ford Motor Co. from latecomer to a top contender in China. Now the Blue Oval is banking on "green" cars to maintain that trajectory through 2020.

 

China is acting more like a mature market, says Ford China Chairman John Lawler, and that means the No. 2 U.S. carmaker must take its lineup into new corners.

 

Nothing underscored that more at last week's Beijing auto show than Ford's plans to introduce electrified cars to China, as well as bring in its first pickup and GT supercar.

 

The new offerings will augment a five-nameplate lineup of crossovers that is already focused on the market's sweet spot. Booming crossover demand helped lift Ford sales 3 percent last year to 1.12 million vehicles.

 

The record-setting pace continued in the first three months of this year, with Ford sales up 14 percent to 314,454 vehicles. The brand's crossovers booked a 38 percent surge in volume. 

 

But Ford now wants 10 to 25 percent of its model mix in China to be electrified by 2020, Lawler said. "We're going to have hybrids, plug-in hybrids and battery electrics," Lawler said at the Beijing show.

 

Ford starts its China rollout with the launch of the hybrid version of the Mondeo sedan this year. The next installment will be the C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid arriving in early 2017.

 

Lawler did not offer details on other vehicles. But they are part of a $4.5 billion (29.1 billion yuan) global investment to introduce 13 electrified vehicles through 2020. By then, more than 40 percent of the company's nameplates will include electrified variants.

 

While most of Ford's offerings in China will be conventional hybrids, the fastest growth will be plug-ins, Lawler said.

 

Ford's campaign comes as automakers in China scramble to meet increasingly stringent emissions standards targeting fuel efficiency and pollution.

 

"The fuel economy regulations in China are the most aggressive over the next five years," Lawler said. "The slope of that line to greater fuel efficiency is greater than anywhere else."

 

China is supporting new-energy vehicles with incentives and other perks. The subsidies apply to pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids produced in China, but not to conventional hybrids such as the Toyota Prius. To qualify, plug-in hybrids must be able to travel 50 kilometers (31 miles) in EV mode.

 

That is pressuring Ford and other automakers to roll out electric cars and plug-in hybrids, even as they gorge on booming demand for crossovers and SUVs.

 

Ford needs to recalibrate as China's market growth cools from its breakneck days of double-digit expansion, Lawler said. It is putting new pressures on prices and dealer profitability.

 

"The market is really acting much more now like a mature market than an emerging market. That means we must adjust," he said. "The good thing is, we know how to operate in a mature market."

 

Ford is moving to tighten inventories to better match supply and demand, in addition to exploring new segments.

 

Hoping to echo the success in its biggest mature market, the U.S., Ford will test Chinese interest in the F-150 Raptor as its first pickup here. Ford offered no sales forecast for China, but the truck is expected to be a low-volume vehicle.