500 battery jobs for Johnson Controls

LANSING, Mich. (WOOD) - A partnership involving Johnson Controls plans to add 500 jobs in West Michigan to build batteries for electric cars, including a plug-in hybrid model Ford plans to roll out in 2012.

The jobs would be added at Johnson Controls' Meadowbrook facility, 70 W. 48th Street in Holland.

"The good news is, because we have an existing footprint, we'll be able to get up and running more quickly," said Mary Ann Wright, CEO of the Johnson Controls-Saft Advanced Power Solutions partnership. Wright told 24 Hour News 8 she expects the plant to be at full capacity and full staff in two-and-a-half years.

The Michigan Economic Growth Authority board passed a roughly $148 million tax credit to help make the development happen Tuesday morning, including a $100 million credit aimed specifically at jump-starting the lithium-ion electric car battery industry. The credits are contingent on the creation of jobs.

Johnson Controls-Saft was one of four approved for tax credits to produce batteries Tuesday.

"There's not a question that the electric vehicle is going to be built," Gov. Jennifer Granholm said in announcing the jobs. "The only question is where. There's not a question that the batteries that will power that electric vehicle are going to be built in the United States," she said. "The question is where. Well, Michigan has planted its flag."

Michigan recently authorized $555 million in refundable tax credits -- a part of which is the $100 million for Johnson Controls-Saft -- in an effort to make Michigan the "capital" of electric car battery manufacturing. The other companies awarded credits Tuesday are A123 Systems Inc., which plans to add jobs in Livonia; KD Advanced Battery Group; and LG Chem-Compact Power. KD and LG Chem have yet to announce where they plan to add jobs. The state legislature would have to approve additional credit funding to make room for LG Chem's planned project.

Johnson Controls-Saft has signed contracts with two customers already, Azure Dynamics and Ford. "Those are just the first couple but there'll be many more to follow," said Wright, the Johnson Controls-Saft CEO.

Ford's plug-in vehicle on display outside the state Capitol Tuesday looks much like a Ford Escape Hybrid. There's a heavier electric battery, but the big change is an electrical socket.

"With the plug you can easily recharge overnight four to five hours and get up to 30 equivalent electric mile range," Ford's director of sustainable and hybrid programs told 24 Hour News 8.

The director, Nancy Gioia, said that's enough range to cover the daily travels of 60 percent of people living in urban areas. And if you have to go farther?

"You don't have to worry about having to plug in again. You can go to regular hybrid mode," she said. You'll use more gas that way but it means you don't ever have to plug the car in.

Ford and other electric vehicle producers will have to sell enough cars to keep those workers employed at Johnson Controls-Saft in Holland. We asked Gioia if she believed the plug-in hybrid would be a profitable entry for Ford.

"Clearly, we want to have postitive contributions to the company for all our products. We really see electrification not as an option but as a must," she said.

Ford and Johnson Controls-Saft will now go to the federal government, looking for Obama administration grants to jump-start the electric car industry. Applications are due in May and grants are to be announced in July.

"We can get up and running as soon as the funds are made available," Wright said.

24 Hour News 8 contacted JCI officials to check on the status of the company's previously-announced plan to close 10 plants but did not receive an answer.