The Obama Administration this week pledged $2.4bn (£1.4bn) in stimulus money in its bid to make America a global leader in electric and hybrid car development.

"For too long we failed to invest in this kind of work, even as countries such as China and Japan were racing ahead," Obama said as he and his colleagues travelled the US this week doling out economic stimulus funds to programmes in 20 states.

Michigan, the state that is the traditional home of the US car industry and in the fallout from the recession has the nation's highest unemployment rate at 15.2 per cent, received 11 grants worth $1.36bn to develop new kinds of batteries and electric car technologies, as well as build new factories to manufacture them.

General Motors received more than $241m to make battery packs for its imminent Chevrolet Volt electric car and build a rear-wheel electric-drive system.

Meanwhile, Ford received nearly $93m mainly to make electric drive axles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and Chrysler received $70m to build plug-in hybrid electric trucks and people movers.

The biggest individual grant, at $299m, went to Johnson Controls, a Michigan company, which will provide Ford with batteries for future electric vehicles. The company is transforming a plant that once made electronics for car interiors into one that will produce Lithium-ion cells for hybrid vehicles and assemble battery systems.

A key requirement for companies to get the grant money is that the batteries and other technologies must be manufactured in the US. "I want the cars of the future and the technologies that power them to be built right here," the President said.