DETROIT, Michigan: General Motors Co. has announced that it will invest nearly $7 billion in electric vehicle and battery production facilities at four Michigan sites, creating 4,000 new jobs, while retaining 1,000 existing positions.

The announcement, made jointly with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, is the single largest investment in the company's plant in Lansing and comes after after the Michigan Strategic Fund Board approved $824.1 million in related incentives this week.

Like other automakers, GM is shifting to the production of electric vehicles, and is spending more than $30 billion through 2025 to meet its stated goals of offering 30 EV models and one million EV sales globally by 2025.

GM will, therefore, have three U.S. battery cell manufacturing sites, with a fourth one being planned, as well as a higher EV production capacity at its Orion Assembly, which is building the electric Chevrolet Bolt EV, giving GM the capacity to build 600,000 electric pickup trucks.

"We will have over a million units of battery electric vehicle capacity in the U.S. by 2025, and that 600,000 is a major part of that," said GM President Mark Reuss.

Whitmer, in collaboration with the Republican-led state Legislature, created the incentives for GM's Michigan investment to encourage economic development, allocating $1 billion into the initiative, after losing out on an $11.4 billion investment by GM's crosstown rival Ford Motor Co., which chose to build its similar EV projects in Kentucky and Tennessee.

"We are thrilled and so fortunate that GM's home is in Michigan and they are growing in Michigan," Whitmer said.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, who also attended the announcement, said, "The economic well-being of our state is not a partisan matter. High-quality jobs do not have a party affiliation."

To power its new electric products, GM, along with LG Energy Solution, through their joint venture Ultium Cells LLC, are investing $2.6 billion to build its third U.S. battery plant in Michigan.

GM also announced that it would invest more than $510 million in its two Lansing-area vehicle assembly plants to upgrade their production capabilities for gas-powered products.

In a statement, United Auto Workers President Ray Curry and Terry Dittes, UAW vice president and director of the union's GM Department, lauded the investment, saying it "creates a strong future for UAW members, their families and communities."