Granholm predicts electric cars will generate 62,000 jobs in Michigan in next decade

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Mich. gov: Electric cars to create 62,000 jobs

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm says the next generation of electric cars and their batteries will create 62,000 jobs in the state over the next decade.

Granholm made the prediction Wednesday, a day before President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit a groundbreaking ceremony for a battery plant outside Grand Rapids.

Granholm says the new jobs demonstrate the need for federal and state investment in private industry. She says the partnership with federal government is the key to manufacturing in the U.S.

The Alliance for American Manufacturing says more than 5 million manufacturing jobs have been lost in the U.S. since 2000, with Midwestern states hit particularly hard.

Obama has set a goal of putting 1 million plug-in hybrid vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015.