‘In the next decade 75% of the global population will live in cities,’ he said. ‘Our challenge is to develop cars that communicate with each other and with the world around them.’

Stephen Odell, president of Ford of Europe, Middle East and Africa, reinforced this desire for of growth. ‘Throughout the economic crisis our plan wasn’t about surviving, it was about growing,’ he said. ‘We have seen 10 straight months of year-on-year growth in Europe and we are on track to be back in profit by 2015.’

Speaking at Ford’s Go Further dealer and press meeting in Barcelona, where the company announced that it will finally build the iconic Mustang sports car for Europe by 2015, Mr Odell said that the European automotive industry will experience 20% growth over the next five years. At a similar event last year he announced that Ford would launch 15 new vehicles in five years. That plan has been revised upwards, to 25 new models in that same five-year timescale.

To meet this growing demand, Ford took the wraps off two concepts, a next-generation five-door Ka at the smaller end and the Edge SUV at the heavier end of the scale. The company also has plans to move upmarket, with its recently announced Vignale range, based on Mondeo and S-Max models.

Ford said that 20% of Kuga sales and 15% of S-Max sales in the last few years have come from customers moving out of traditional premium brands, with the highest Titanium trim level accounting for almost 40% of those models sold in Europe.

However the biggest growth is expected to come from SUV sales, with the market for SUVs in Europe rising by 35% between 2007 and 2012.

‘Over the next five years we will almost triple our SUV sales in Europe,’ said Jim Farley, Ford’s global vice president of marketing, sales and service.

The company’s SUV range now starts with the Ecosport compact crossover, which arrives in Europe in the coming months. Built in South America, Ford has already sold 130,000 Ecosports in the Latin American market.

Ford will produce more than 100,000 Kuga models this year and the range will be topped by the Edge (pictured), Ford’s first large SUV developed for the European market.

‘We expect to win over one million customers in the next five years with our SUV line-up,’ said Mr Farley.