Last week Ford announced that its plan to restructure its three-way joint venture Chang'an Ford Mazda Automobile Co was recently approved by the National Development and Reform Commission.

According to the plan, the current joint venture - held 35 percent by Ford, 15 percent by Mazda and 50 percent by Chang'an Automobile Group - will split with each foreign carmakers forming a new 50-50 joint ventures with Chang'an separately.

Media reports said that the new joint venture between Ford and Chang'an will keep the Chongqing plants of the former tie-up and the existing facilities in Nanjing will be left to Chang'an Mazda.

The change is expected to facilitate Ford's growth in China and narrow its gap with leading Sino-foreign joint ventures by Volkswagen and General Motors.

Ford started construction on its third plant in Chongqing on Aug 27 and two days later it broke ground on a new plant in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. It also has an engine plant and a transmission plant under construction in Chongqing.

The expansion, the largest by Ford in 50 years, will double Ford's total production capacity in China to 1.2 million vehicles and help the automaker realize an increase of around 50 percent in global sales from 2010 to about 8 million vehicles in 2015.

In the first seven months this year, Ford's China sales increased 4 percent to 319,882 vehicles. Its locally built products include the Focus, Fiesta, Mondeo and S-Max.