By Keith Naughton

Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) — Ford Motor Co., the first U.S. automaker to offer a hybrid model, said it may spend $300 million to $500 million on Michigan plants for electric vehicles and batteries.

Those factories would have 1,000 jobs, Derrick Kuzak, the Dearborn, Michigan-based company’s global vice president of product development, said on a conference call today. Ford is seeking tax credits from the state to move battery and hybrid- vehicle production from Mexico, he said.

Ford, the only major U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy, has four hybrids, including the Escape sport-utility vehicle first offered five years ago and the Fusion sedan introduced this year. The company has said it plans to roll out a version of its Transit Connect commercial van powered by electricity next year, followed by an electric Focus small car in 2011.

“If the economics of batteries continue to fall into place, plug-in hybrids have the potential to be within a couple thousand dollars of regular internal-combustion engine cars,” said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “They really have a shot at high sales volume.”

The automaker said U.S. sales of its four hybrid models rose 73 percent in November to 2,361 vehicles, or 1.9 percent of its total. Ford has said it will offer a plug-in hybrid in 2011 and the next generation of such vehicles in 2012. Those models will be based on the revamped Focus, which will be introduced in the U.S. late next year, Kuzak said.

Michigan Economic Development Corp. is “aware and supportive of Ford’s efforts, and they are complementary to Michigan’s strategy of capturing the 21st Century” factories for electric propulsion, said Bridget Beckman, a spokeswoman for the government agency.

Ford fell 9 cents to $8.82 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have more than tripled this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Keith Naughton in Southfield, Michigan at Knaughton3@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 8, 2009 16:58 EST