Ford Motor Co. said Monday it plans to invest $135 million and hire 220 workers to create parts for its new hybrid and electric vehicles.

Ford will add a total of 170 jobs at its Rawsonville and Van Dyke Transmission plants in Michigan, as well as more than 50 electric vehicle engineer positions.

The new hires will work to design, engineer and produce battery packs and electric-drive transaxles for the company’s hybrids that go into production in North America in 2012.

The initiative will bring work to Michigan that is currently performed by suppliers in Japan and Mexico, Ford said Monday in a prepared statement.

“Electrified vehicles are a key part of our plan to offer a full lineup of green vehicles, and we are building a center of excellence in the U.S., here in Michigan, to keep Ford on the cutting edge,” said Mark Fields, Ford president of the Americas. “Today’s announcement is another important step in our larger strategy to launch a family of hybrids, plug-in hybrids and full electric vehicles around the world.”

The launch of the new hybrid in 2012 is part of Ford’s plan to introduce five electrified vehicles in the U.S. by 2012 and in Europe by 2013, the automaker said.

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Toyota has showed its resilience by achieving a net profit of 112.2 billion yen (USD 1.2 billion) in the three months up till March 31, compared to a net loss of 765.8 billion yen (USD 8.2 billion) a year earlier. Sales increased by 49 percent to 5.28 trillion yen (USD 56.88 billion) in the three months, up from 3.54 trillion yen (USD 37.95 billion) a year earlier.

For the entire financial year, Toyota managed to earn a net profit of 209.46 billion yen (USD 2.24 billion) from sales of 18.95 trillion yen (USD 203.42 billion). And the corporate icon of Japan is forecasting a further 48 percent rise in net profit, accompanied by 1.3 percent gain in sales, for the current financial year ending March 31, 2011.

“After taking over amid a storm, I wanted to do anything to avoid a third straight year in the red”, Toyota President Akio Toyoda, grandson of the company’s founder, said. “We’re still in a storm—there’s been no change on that front. But from the storm, we’ve begun to see glimpses of sunny but faraway skies”.

Such a positive earnings report is a massive boost for Toyota’s confidence as it attempts to win back customer loyalty and lost sales resulting from the massive recalls of more than eight million vehicles worldwide. Public relation (PR) nightmare aside, Toyota is also facing a suit of legal actions in the U.S. for the injuries or deaths caused by sudden-accelerating Toyota vehicles.

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Goldman Sachs provided a more detailed view of its legal troubles Monday, acknowledging it faces a series of government probes over some of its business dealings.

In its latest quarterly filing, Goldman disclosed that there are investigations from both Britain’s Financial Services Authority as well as the independent U.S.-based Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, over the sale of mortgage-related investments.

Wall Street’s top investment bank also revealed that it was subject to a number of investigations related to its work with Greece, after helping the now-embattled nation issue debt and conduct other complex financial transactions.

The latest disclosures build on revelations made by the company earlier this month in another regulatory filing.

Goldman said last week it was facing a half-dozen shareholder lawsuits over the now infamous Abacus transaction in 2007. In April. the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Goldman and one of its employees with fraud in the sale of that pool of securities tied to subprime mortgages.

The company reiterated Monday that its various legal troubles would not have “a material adverse effect” on its business, but added it remained vulnerable to additional legal action by shareholders.

One noteworthy addition to Monday’s filing was the firm’s view on the SEC case. It noted that the SEC’s civil lawsuit did pose a threat of affecting its ability to act as a registered broker-dealer and in advising mutual funds.

Nonetheless, Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) shares gained nearly 3% in morning trading Monday as the broader market rallied on the news of the $1 trillion bailout package for Greece and other troubled European nations.

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