Ford may spend $500 million to make electric

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Ford may spend $500 million to make electric

Posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 3:31 PM EST.(Employee News)

Ford Motor Co., the first U.S. automaker to offer a hybrid model, said it may spend $300 million to $500 million on Michigan plants for electric vehicles and batteries, Bloomberg reported.

Those factories would have 1,000 jobs, Derrick Kuzak, the Dearborn, Mich.-based company’s global vice president of product development, said on a conference call today, the paper said. Ford is seeking tax credits from the state to move battery and hybrid-vehicle production from Mexico, he told reporters.

Ford, the only major U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy, has four hybrids, including the Escape sport-utility vehicle first offered five years ago and the Fusion sedan introduced this year, the paper noted. The company has said it plans to roll out a version of its Transit Connect commercial van powered by electricity next year, followed by an electric Focus small car in 2011, the story said. (Bloomberg)