“It doesn’t help the American auto industry, though, if we become reliant on foreign batteries for automotives the way we are dependent on foreign sources for oil,” said Michael Shore, a spokesman for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

Granholm on Tuesday announced that four companies have agreed to invest more than $1.7 billion to launch advanced battery facilities in Michigan. The projects are expected to create 6,683 new jobs.

The companies are Johnson Controls-Saft Advanced Power Solutions LLC, LG Chem-Compact Power, KD Advanced Battery Group LLC and A123Systems Inc.

Granholm signed a bill last week to offer an additional $220 million in refundable tax credits for companies that develop and manufacture advanced batteries for hybrid vehicles in Michigan.

The bill, introduced by state Sen. John Pappageorge, R-Troy, brings Michigan’s total incentive package to $555 million and puts the state in a position to capture up to $2 billion in federal development grants.

The new incentives also could vastly increase the number of jobs in Michigan as companies relocate to the state, Senate Republicans spokeswoman Kristyn Ladd said.

Michigan has not been a leader in hybrid-vehicle manufacturing, but developing advanced batteries in-state would be a step in this direction, especially with the work already being done by researchers at the state’s universities, Shore said.

“There is no place on the planet with as much talent and resources devoted to these advanced technologies,” he said.

Both MSU and the University of Michigan conduct research on hybrid vehicles, and the law could further their research.

“We are doing a couple of projects related to these batteries, so this would help the research of MSU,” said Elias Strangas, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at MSU. “But I’d prefer to say it the other way — that MSU research will help these issues by helping to develop faster, better batteries.”

Strangas, along with several other MSU professors, has been working on projects related to hybrid vehicles for about five years, including a project to convert diesel buses to hybrid vehicles. In the state’s quest to help the automotive industry survive and prosper again, developing technology to hybridize buses is just as important as the hybridization of cars, Strangas said.

“They are mostly operating in cities, rather than on highways,” he said. “That’s where most benefits can be seen in terms of savings on fuel, lower emissions.”

By the year 2020, advanced battery development could be an $18 billion industry, creating up to 40,000 jobs, Ladd said.

“Nobody in the U.S. currently manufactures these batteries, at least on any large-scale degree,” she said. “Right now we’re importing it from other countries and this would establish us as a major center nationwide.”