Ford Motor Co. is closing in on Japanese rival brands in the China top seller lists, according to Reuters.
Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co are strugglng in the market after anti-Japan sentiment flared up about a year ago. The Michigan-based Ford brand has fallen behind Toyota and Honda for most of the past decade, but hopes to change that.
Ford, which came late to the China market, is likely to sell more than 900,000 vehicles, including passenger cars and commercial vehicles, this year in China thanks to its beefed-up product lineup, said a company official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
After Japan's decision last September to nationalize disputed islands in the East China Sea sparked anti-Japan sentiment among Chinese consumers, Ford may have a chance to catch up.
The American automaker sold 551,738 vehicles during the first eight months of the year, up 50 percent and is expected to release its September China sales data as early as on Wednesday.
"We should be able to sell more than 900,000 vehicles, possibly close to a million in China this year," the Ford official told Reuters.
Toyota hopes to sell about 900,000 vehicles and Honda about 750,000 in China this year. China-based spokespeople at the two firms told Reuters they were on track to meet those objectives.
Either way, Ford and the Japanese carmakers will not surpass General Motors Co and Volkswagen AG, which will likely sell 3 million and 3.2 million vehicles, respectively, this year in China.
During the first nine months of this year, Toyota sold a total of about 636,700 vehicles, down 0.5 percent from a year earlier, Honda sold 497,261 vehicles, up 5.8 percent, and Nissan sold 885,700 vehicles, up 0.2 percent, according to Reuters.
Ford has been overhauling its product lineup in China for about two years with sales growing "in leaps and bounds," Yale Zhang, head of Shanghai-based consulting firm Automotive Foresight, told Reuters.
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