Auto industry shifts into gear: Ford has plans to hire, Saab sold

LOS ANGELES – More signs emerged Tuesday that the auto industry is recovering from its deep slump, including the sale of the Swedish upscale car brand Saab.

Ford Motor Co. said it will hire an additional 1,200 workers, and General Motors Co. announced a big investment in manufacturing electric engines.

And sports-car maker Spyker Cars announced Tuesday that it will acquire Saab from General Motors. As part of the agreement, Spyker said it will form a new company, Saab Spyker Automobiles, which will continue the Saab brand.

“Today’s announcement is great news for Saab employees, dealers and suppliers, great news for millions of Saab customers and fans worldwide, and great news for GM,” John Smith, GM’s vice president for corporate planning and alliances, said in a statement.

Ford said it will invest $400 million in a Chicago factory and will hire 1,200 workers to staff a second shift at the site, where the automaker will produce the next-generation Ford Explorer late this year.

“The Ford announcement is highly meaningful. Ford is in the middle of a record number of new product launches. They are scheduling a 155 percent increase in production over last year in the first quarter in North American production,” said Sean McAlinden, chief economist for the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.

He noted that the Chicago announcement might mean the hiring of hundreds of “new entry” workers that cost half the hourly rate that current factory employees earn. He estimated that as many as 600 of the new hires could fall under this lesser-paid category.

The new workers will start at $14 an hour and over a period of years will get raises to bring their wages to the same tier as current employees, said Mike Omotoso, an analyst with J.D. Power & Associates, the auto information company.

“It was a concession the United Auto Workers union made to get Ford to hire workers and not be at a cost disadvantage compared with the other companies,” Omotoso said.

He expects there will be plenty of applicants. “In today’s economy people are grateful for a $14-an-hour job,” he said.

Meanwhile, GM will spend $246 million to become the first major U.S. automaker to design and manufacture electric motors, which it sees as the core technology for hybrids and electric vehicles.

“In the future, electric motors might become as important to GM as (gasoline-powered) engines are now,” said Tom Stephens, GM vice chairman for global product operations.

The automaker plans to start selling its electric Chevrolet Volt model later this year.

The first GM-produced electric motors will appear in three years in the company’s next-generation, rear-wheel-drive hybrid vehicles.

Tuesday’s news follows a series of hiring announcements from several companies that will add a total of almost 5,000 workers in the coming year.

Volkswagen of America is hiring 2,000 people as it gets ready to build a new sedan in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Toyota Motor North America plans to add a second shift to its truck factory in San Antonio, adding 850 employees, and it could add several hundred more workers at other factories as it ramps up production from the depressed levels of last year.

South Korean manufacturer Kia Motors is recruiting at least 1,200 workers to assemble the newest generation of its Sorrento crossover vehicle at its factory in West Point, Ga.

Chrysler Group has added about 400 designers and engineers, at least on a temporary basis, as it starts to rebuild a segment of its workforce that Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said was decimated by layoffs last year.

And looking ahead, Ford Motor Co. said it expected to hire about 1,000 workers starting in late 2011 at a factory in Wayne, Mich., where it will build a next-generation hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicle.