DETROIT — Michigan has won the high-stakes competition with two other states to build General Motors Corp.'s next-generation subcompact car, a person briefed on the decision said Thursday.

The announcement that the car will be built at a retooled midsize car factory in Orion Township near Pontiac will come today, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not been made public. It will save about 1,200 jobs at the factory, which had been slated to shut down later this year.

GM spokeswoman Sherrie Childers Arb declined to comment on whether GM had made a decision. The top government official in the county where the Orion plant is located said he has a phone call scheduled with GM at 9 a.m. today.

"We had stiff competition from Tennessee and Wisconsin," said Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson. "I think the impact of reopening that plant and making the small car here will have a huge long-term effect not just on Oakland County but southeast Michigan and help us address some of the real serious employment issues that we have in this region."

The Orion plant, about 40 miles north of Detroit, had been in competition with GM factories in Janesville, Wis., and Spring Hill, Tenn., to build the car.

The Orion plant now makes the Pontiac G6 and Chevrolet Malibu midsize cars, but the Pontiac brand is being discontinued and the Malibu is also made at factory in Kansas City, Kan.

GM announced when it filed for bankruptcy protection June 1 that the Orion and Spring Hill plants would go on standby status later this year, meaning workers could be called back if the company needs to increase production. The Janesville plant already closed in April.