Ford Motor to spend $135M to bring jobs to Michigan

Ford Motor Co. plans to spend $135 million to prepare two Detroit-area plants to build components for the next generation of electric vehicles and shift work now done in Japan and Mexico to Michigan.

The automaker also said last  week that it plans to make Michigan its center of excellence for vehicle electrification by adding a total of 170 jobs at the company's Van Dyke Transmission plants in Sterling Heights and Rawsonville plant in Ypsilanti Township. It also plans to hire 50 additional electric vehicle engineers, the company said.

"Electrified vehicles are a key part of our plan to offer a full lineup of green vehicles, and we are building a center of excellence in the U.S., here in Michigan, to keep Ford on the cutting edge," said Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas.

Ford's Rawsonville Plant will assemble battery packs for the next-generation hybrid vehicles, moving work to Michigan that is currently performed by a supplier in Mexico.

The Van Dyke Transmission Plant will produce a new electric-drive transaxle for the new hybrids, moving work to Michigan that is currently performed by a supplier in Japan.

Fields said new hybrids are part of Ford's plan to launch five electrified vehicles in the U.S. by 2012 and in Europe by 2013. The list includes the Transit Connect Electric light commercial vehicle in North America later this year and in Europe in 2011; the Focus Electric in North America in 2011 and in Europe a year later; Lincoln MKZ hybrid, available this fall in North America, a next-generation hybrid electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle based on Ford's global C-car platform in North America in 2012; and a C-MAX hybrid electric and plug-in hybrid electric model for Europe in 2013

"I am proud of the tremendous success of the UAW and Ford in working together to keep good manufacturing jobs in the U.S.," said Bob King, UAW vice president, National Ford Department.

"We are pleased that both Rawsonville and Van Dyke Transmission have been selected to produce these important components for Ford's next-generation hybrid-electric vehicles," King said.