Building battery packs for electrified vehicles at a plant in Michigan will protect hundreds of jobs and create new ones, Ford Motor Co. has said.

The battery packs would be built at its Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti Township as part of a $450 million investment in assembling electric vehicles and developing and building battery packs, Ford has said. It was further said by the Dearborn automaker that the investment would create 1,000 new jobs in Michigan by 2012.

Donnie Enersen, president of UAW Local 898, which represents workers at the Rawsonville plant, said, "This is a huge deal for our plant and the community. Ford Motor Co. is taking a giant step in green technology…. Not only is this great for our community, it's great for the environment."

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, the union's national Ford section chief, as well as plant leaders and township officials who negotiated the deal, were praised by him.

Ford spokeswoman Jennifer Moore said, "We are excited about our plans to bring battery pack development and assembly to Michigan, and will share more details soon."

It was announced by Ford that its $450 million plan at the Detroit auto show in January, but did not say where the battery packs would be assembled. At the show, it said it planned to build hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery-electric models of the Ford Focus at its Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne.

It would bring the engineering and design of the vehicles' battery packs in-house, the automaker also had said. (With Inputs from Agencies)