Ford Motor unveiled the Escort Concept - its new concept car - and its new Mondeo at Auto Shanghai 2013 yesterday, drawing near to its target of bringing 15 new vehicles to China by 2015.

The Ford Escort Concept, a new kind of compact car built on the company's worldwide best-selling Focus, is aimed at attracting additional customers in China's compact car segment, which accounts for more than 25 percent of the country's total vehicle industry.

"Designed with the Chinese consumers in mind, the new Escort Concept has the potential to strengthen our product portfolio here in China, as we take advantage of opportunities for diversification within the compact car segment," said Jim Farley, executive vice president of global marketing, sales and service at Ford.

The new Mondeo was showcased for the first time in Asia, and shared the stage with other cars, such as the recently launched Fiesta, Ford's best-selling small car, the Fiesta ST hot hatch, and the full range of Ford's SUVs - the new Explore, Kuga SUV, EcoSport urban SUV and Edge crossover.

"Combined with the new Ford Mondeo, our terrific SUV lineup and the best-selling Focus, you can start to see what our lineup will look like when we reach our goal of bringing 15 new vehicles to China by 2015," said John Lawler, chairman and chief executive officer of Ford China.

Nigel Harris, vice president of sales, service and distribution at Ford Asia Pacific, told Shanghai Daily that the company plans to double the dealership network in China in the next few years to ride on China's ambitions in urbanization.

"The Chinese government has a strong urbanization plan, which would increase people's desire for personal transportation and freedom.

"Air quality is really important, so there will be more efficient vehicles coming to the market. I think it will be high on the agenda," Harris said.

Ford saw the fastest growth among major foreign automakers in the first three months of this year, seeing its deliveries surging 54 percent to more than 186,000 vehicles.

That indicates Ford outsold Toyota in China for the first time, based on quarterly company figures stretching back to 2011.