Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm predicts the next generation of electric cars and the batteries that power them will create 62,000 jobs in the state over the next decade.
She spoke Wednesday, a day before President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit a groundbreaking for a battery plant in Holland near Grand Rapids.
Granholm says the predicted 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 America.
The Alliance for American Manufacturing says the United States has lost more than 5 million manufacturing jobs since 2000, with states from the Midwest hit particularly hard.
Obama has set a goal of putting 1 million plug-in hybrid vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015.
