Electric-car battery plant under consideration for Elyria, Ohio

CLEVELAND (AP) — Ohio, where auto-industry layoffs have helped push unemployment to 10.2 percent, would get a boost in the electric-car business with government-backed lithium-ion battery materials production at a proposed plant in Elyria.

About half the project’s cost would be covered with money from the $787 billion federal stimulus package, backers said Thursday.

“Hopefully, it will put Ohio on the global lithium-ion battery industry map,” said Prashant Chintawar, who is directing the project for chemical company BASF, which has landed a U.S. Department of Energy license to produce materials for lithium-ion batteries.

The Energy Department will decide by late summer whether to award an economic-stimulus package grant to help pay for the Elyria plant, Chintawar said.

The company couldn’t estimate the number of jobs that might be created.