How GM and Ford EV plant investments compare: Billions of dollars, thousands of jobs

General Motors' $6.5 billion investment in Michigan for EV and battery plants is the latest salvo in the ongoing battle with Ford Motor Co. as the automakers try to become leaders in electric vehicle sales. Both companies are planning the largest manufacturing investment in their histories to increase output of batteries and EVs over the next three to five years. Here's how the crosstown rivals' investments stack up:

GM's $6.5 billion investment in Michigan is part of a plan announced last year to spend $35 billion on electric and autonomous vehicle development and have 30 EV models available globally through 2025. GM is aiming for a fully electric portfolio by 2035.

GM says it will spend $4 billion to overhaul its Orion Assembly plant north of Detroit to produce battery-powered versions of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups, creating more than 2,350 jobs and retaining 1,000 current ones. The automaker and its battery joint-venture partner, LG Energy Solution, will build a battery cell manufacturing plant in Lansing, creating 1,700 Ultium Cells jobs.

Elsewhere in Michigan, GM has spent $2.2 billion retooling the former Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant into Factory Zero, which now builds electric Hummers, after previously threatening to permanently close the facility. Factory Zero also will begin making the Silverado EV in 2023 and combine with Orion Assembly to give GM an annual production capacity of 600,000 electric full-size pickups once both plants are fully ramped up.

Last week, GM announced a $154 million investment in Lockport, N.Y., to build EV motor parts. Additionally, the automaker has invested more than $4 billion in Spring Hill, Tenn., to build EVs and Ultium battery cells.

Ford has committed more than $30 billion toward EVs through 2025. The automaker plans to spend more on EVs than on gasoline-powered vehicles in 2023.

Ford has said EVs will account for 40 percent of its global sales by 2030, when the Lincoln brand will have four battery-electric products.

Key to Ford's investment is an $11.4 billion project — billed as the largest manufacturing investment in its history — for campuses in Tennessee and Kentucky. Its battery partner, SK Innovation, is responsible for $4.4 billion of the investment.

The Tennessee campus, called Blue Oval City, will include Ford's first new vehicle assembly plant in more than 50 years. The site — three times the size of the automaker's sprawling Rouge Complex in Michigan — will hire about 6,000 people to assemble next-generation electric F-Series pickups and include battery cell production and a supplier park, Ford said. It's expected to open in 2025.

South of Louisville, Ky., Ford will build a 1,500-acre battery park under its BlueOvalSK joint venture with SK. The site will comprise two battery plants making advanced lithium ion batteries, with one opening in 2025 and the other in 2026. Ford said the site will create 5,000 jobs.

In Michigan, Ford has invested $700 million to build its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center that will start making the F-150 Lightning this spring as well as $185 million in a research lab for EV battery development called Ford Ion Park.

CEO Jim Farley has said he wants to double Ford's EV production capacity to 600,000 vehicles in two years, including about 150,000 F-150 Lightnings.