Ford accelerates in China surpasses Toyota and Honda

BEIJING, 6 JAN-Ford and its local partners see sales rise by almost 50 percent last year in China, surpassing the Japanese Giants Toyota and Honda, obtaining large gains in the largest auto market in the world.
For much of the last decade, Ford was behind the big Japanese automakers, but a line of new and redesigned vehicles, including the top-selling Focus, and a territorial dispute between China and Japan helped the u.s. company in 2013.
The automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, said on Monday that, along with its local partner, sold 935,813 vehicles in China last year, an increase of 49 percent before 2012.
Ford is still far behind General Motors and Volkswagen. It is expected that both announce sales of over 3 million vehicles in China in 2013.
Toyota and its two local partners sold approximately 917,500 cars in China last year, up 9.2 percent before 2012. Honda 2013 volume in China reached 756,882 vehicles, up 26.4 percent before 2012.