FORD Motor Co.’s premium Lincoln brand plans to build as many as five new vehicles in China by 2022, according to two U.S. sources, in a move to expand sales in the world’s largest vehicle market that would also blunt the impact of U.S.-China trade spats.

Ford has said it plans to build an all-new sport utility vehicle in China by the end of 2019. However, the company has not detailed future production plans for the Lincoln brand in China beyond that.

“Our localization plans to support the China market are on track and will serve to further drive Lincoln’s growth in China,” Lincoln spokeswoman Angie Kozleski said. “Beyond that, it would be premature to discuss our future product and production plans or timing.”

Sources familiar with Ford’s production plans said the U.S. automaker now expects to begin building the new Lincoln Aviator in China in late 2019 or early 2020, along with replacements for the MKC compact crossover and the MKZ midsize sedan, followed in 2021 by the all-new Nautilus, which replaces the Lincoln MKX crossover.

A fifth model, a small coupe-like crossover, is tentatively slated for production in China in 2022, the sources said.

Ford has much to lose if the war of words over trade between China and U.S. President Donald Trump escalates into a full-blown tariff war.

Last year, it shipped about 80,000 vehicles to China from North America, more than half of them Lincolns to support the brand’s growth.

All Lincoln vehicles that Ford now sells in China are brought in from North America.

Ford is pursuing long-range plans to build more vehicles in China to serve a market that is now roughly 60 percent larger than the U.S. market, and projected to keep growing.

(SD-Agencies)