Northeastside-based EnerDel could benefit from a California-based hybrid automaker’s announcement Tuesday to buy a former General Motors plant for $18 million in Delaware.

Fisker Automotive, which recently won approval for $528.7 million in government loans to develop plug-in hybrids, expects to spend another $175 million to refurbish the facility before production of next-generation hybrids begins in late 2012.

EnerDel, a 150-employee startup with facilities in Indianapolis and Noblesville, is one of a few Indiana companies making inroads as plans for new hybrid vehicles move from potential to production. The company already has a letter-of-intent to supply lithium iron batteries to Fisker’s $88,000 Karma luxury sedan.

But it’s not known whether EnerDel could also supply batteries to Fisker’s $39,900 plug-in hybrid electric sedan to be built at the former GM plant, announced Tuesday to much fanfare by Vice President Joe Biden, congressmen and others officials in Wilmington, Del.

EnerDel could hire hundreds of new workers if chosen to be a vendor for the Delaware-produced vehicle, the Nina.

Irvine, Calif.-based Fisker and EnerDel today declined to discuss specifics of their partnership.

“Our relationship with Fisker … is for work on the Karma. Fisker’s recent announcement regarding their plant in Delaware is great news and we congratulate them on this exciting development,” said Rachel Carroll, a spokeswoman for EnerDel’s parent company, Ener1.

Plug-in hybrids run on an electric motor powered by a massive battery recharged from a wall outlet or a small engine aboard the vehicle. In 2008, more than 312,000 new hybrid vehicles were registered in the U.S.

Automakers worldwide will introduce 42 plug-in and electric models from 2009 to 2012. And Indiana is set to become a hotbed for the hybrid-electric industry after President Barack Obama in August showered more than $400 million in high-tech grants designed to help bring the electric-car business to life.

Michael Omotoso, a senior manager for J.D. Power&Associates in Troy, Mich., told Bloomberg News the U.S. government expects 1 million electric vehicles to be on the road by 2015, but analysts expect 80,000 to 100,000 by 2015.

Charles Staley, president and CEO of Anderson’s Flagship Enterprise Center, suggests consumers look at hybrids for the savings they offer over the life of the vehicle, particulary as sub-$3 a gallon gas wanes.

Staley said, “It’s nice to be green, nice to be saving the environment, nice to have less of a carbon footprint, but it’s cost effective to have the vehicle. You are able to get economy that other vehicles can’t.”