Ford to add jobs at Michigan plant for electric vehicles

Ford Motor Co., working to electrify a quarter of its lineup, is adding about 40 jobs to a factory in Michigan as part of a plan to introduce four such models by 2012, two people familiar with the plan said yesterday.

Mark Fields, the automaker's president of the Americas, plans to announce the jobs and the next stage of Ford's electric-vehicle strategy in a ceremony May 24 at an engine factory in Ypsilanti, Michigan, said the people, who asked to not be identified disclosing details prior to the announcement. Ford has cut almost half of its North American jobs since 2006.

Ford will begin selling two electric vehicles and two new hybrids by 2012 and expects such models to be 10 percent to 25 percent of its worldwide fleet in a decade, the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker has said. Automakers are developing models powered all or in part by electricity to meet U.S. government fuel-economy standards.

"Ford has a good pedigree in electric vehicles," Michael Robinet, an auto-industry analyst with CSM Worldwide in Northville, Michigan, said in a telephone interview. "Ford's been at the forefront of layering in this new technology. It bodes well for their future."

Also at the ceremony will be Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat, and Bob King, nominated as the next president of the United Auto Workers union, Ford said in a media advisory.

"All I know is it's another good-news event," Liz Boyd, a spokeswoman for Granholm, said in an e-mail.

John Stoll, a Ford spokesman, declined to comment.