ATLANTA– Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution announced on Thursday that they will build a $4.3 billion electric battery plant as part of the deal HyundaiThe new electric vehicle assembly plant in Southeast Georgia.
The companies will split the investment and start production as early as the end of 2025.
Jaehoon Chang, CEO of Hyundai Motor Co., said in a statement that the battery plant would “lay a strong foundation to drive the global transition to electric vehicles,” and said the company wants to expand its efforts to produce electrified Hyundai and Kia Accelerate vehicles in North America.
“Hyundai Motor Group is focused on its electrification efforts to secure a leadership position in the global auto industry,” Chang said.
The South Korean automaker announced it will invest $5.5 billion in electric vehicle and battery assembly in Ellabell, near Savannah, in 2022. The site is expected to employ 8,100 people and start producing vehicles in 2025.
Garrison Douglas, a Kemp spokesman, said the 3,000-job battery plant is part of the 8,100 total jobs and the $4.3 billion investment is part of the previously announced $5.5 billion total jobs .
The Hyundai/LG plant is said to be able to supply batteries for 300,000 electric vehicles per year, which will initially match the planned production of the adjacent vehicle assembly plant. Hyundai said the Georgia plant could later expand to produce 500,000 vehicles a year.
“This is exactly what we envisioned when Georgia opened the Hyundai Metaplant plant last May, and this project is the latest milestone on Georgia’s path to becoming the country’s electric capital,” said Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican, in an opinion statement.
In addition to the assembly and battery plants, auto parts suppliers have pledged to invest more than $2 billion and hire 4,800 workers in the region around the Hyundai site.
The announcements are part of a rush towards electric vehicles and batteries in the United States. Under the US Inflation Reduction Act, EVs must be assembled in North America and a percentage of their battery parts and minerals must be sourced from North America or a US Free Trade Partner to qualify for a full $7,500 EV Tax Credit.
No Hyundai or Kia vehicles are currently eligible for the tax credit.
“The IRA’s manufacturing incentives continue to bring jobs and investment to Georgia,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia said in a statement. “My goal remains to make Georgia the world leader in advanced energy production.
This is the second major battery plant Hyundai is involved in building in Georgia. Hyundai and SK On, a unit of South Korea’s SK Group, announced in December that they would jointly invest $4 billion to $5 billion to build a new plant northwest of Atlanta that will produce electric batteries for Hyundai’s US-assembled electric vehicles and Kia , in Cartersville, is scheduled to begin production in 2025 and is expected to employ 3,500 people.
Hyundai will not only need batteries for vehicles manufactured in Ellabell. The company already assembles electric vehicles at its Montgomery, Alabama, plant and announced in April that it would begin assembly of its Kia EV9 full-size electric SUV at Kia’s West Point, Georgia plant.
The partnership with LG and SK will also diversify Hyundai’s supply base, giving the automaker more than one battery maker to buy from.
Since the battery plant is part of the overall Hyundai complex, no additional incentives would be offered, according to Douglas.
The state of Georgia and local governments have already pledged $1.8 billion in tax breaks and other incentives. According to Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, a group skeptical about subsidies for private companies, it is the largest subsidy package a state has ever promised an auto plant.
