The Ford Motor Company said last week that it planned to introduce 15 battery electric or plug-in gasoline-electric hybrid car models in China by 2025. Speaking in Shanghai, William C. Ford Jr., Ford Motor’s longtime executive chairman, outlined why in an unusually blunt comment.

“When I think of where E.V.s are going,” he said, using an abbreviation for electric vehicles, “it’s clearly the case that China will lead the world in E.V. development.”

Ford Motor is far from alone. General Motors, Volkswagen, Daimler and other automakers have put big bets on the market for electric cars in China in recent months.

Still, Ford’s statement was notable given his own long-held ambitions to develop vehicles that run on something other than gasoline. Two decades ago, he drove an electric Ford Ranger compact pickup truck around the Detroit area even as his wife drove a gasoline-powered Lincoln Navigator sport utility vehicle.

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