The U.S. Energy Department is expected to announce Tuesday that Ford Motor Co. (F) will be among the first beneficiaries of a $25 billion loan program created by Congress to help auto makers retool their factories to produce advanced-technology vehicles.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu plans to announce the award to Ford at an event Tuesday morning in Dearborn, Mich., according to two Capitol Hill aides with knowledge of the announcement.

An Energy Department spokeswoman declined to comment, as did a Ford spokesman.

Ford, alone among the Detroit three auto makers in not receiving federal bailout money, has said it would seek $11 billion from the loan program to invest in the research and development of fuel-efficient vehicles. It hopes to get at least $5 billion from the program by 2011.

The loan program was created as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which set stringent new fuel-economy standards for vehicles. The loans are intended to help the auto industry meet the legislation's target of a 35-miles-per-gallon average fuel economy for cars and light trucks by 2020. President Barack Obama has since moved to impose even more aggressive fuel-economy targets.

Costs associated with revamping plants and investing in research and development to meet the 2007 law's targets were expected to top $100 billion.

"This is a much-needed support system for auto makers as we face these historic sales drops," said Wade Newton, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, an industry trade group representing major domestic and foreign auto makers.

He said the government loans would help defray upfront costs and ultimately lower the price of advanced-technology vehicles. "We have to be able to have products available to consumers that they're still willing to pay for," Newton said.

The loans are designed to help auto makers revamp plants to increase a given vehicle's fuel efficiency by 25% from that of cars previously made at the plants.

The Energy Department has said for months that awards from the program were imminent. But an announcement has been repeatedly delayed, in part because of the sheer volume of applications. The department initially received 75 applications for loan requests that far exceeded the money available in the program.

The uncertain fates faced by General Motors Corp. (GMGMQ) and Chrysler Group LLC are also believed to have contributed to the delay.

-By Josh Mitchell and Stephen Power, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6637; joshua.mitchell@dowjones.com