Hyundai Motor's US Electric Vehicle Plant Likely in Southeastern Regions Including Georgia and Tennessee

Foreign Media Report "Hyundai Motor in Talks with Georgia State"
Hyundai Motor "No Final Decision on Specific Location Yet"
Tennessee and South Carolina Also Mentioned Alongside Georgia
Local Media "8500 Jobs to Be Created Near Atlantic Coast"

A view of Kia's U.S. plant in West Point, Georgia, USA

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] Hyundai Motor Group is reportedly in talks with the state of Georgia to build a new electric vehicle (EV) factory in the United States, according to foreign media reports. The company stated, "We are pursuing the establishment of a U.S. factory, but nothing has been concretely decided yet."

However, the industry expects that the site will be selected as early as this month to establish a local EV mass production system around 2025. This is because it takes about 2 to 3 years to build the factory and stabilize the production system after completion. Along with Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina in the U.S. Sun Belt (southern region) eastern area are being considered as major candidate sites and are under final review.

According to local foreign media on the 10th, Hyundai Motor Group is discussing the establishment of an EV factory with the Georgia state government. The local media Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, citing an anonymous source, that the new factory would create about 8,500 jobs and that Bryan County near Savannah, adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean, is a strong candidate site. Considering that Hyundai Motor Group’s currently operated overseas factories typically employ about 3,000 to 4,000 people per plant, this is a considerable scale.

Kia's first dedicated electric vehicle EV6 being assembled. It is manufactured at the Hwaseong plant in Korea.

Neither Hyundai Motor Group nor the Georgia state government made specific comments on this matter. This is because competition among local governments to attract new factories of finished car companies is usually fierce. Last year, Hyundai Motor Group decided to invest $7.4 billion (approximately 9 trillion KRW) to build EV production facilities in the U.S.

Earlier last month, Hyundai Motor decided to spend $300 million (about 360 billion KRW) to remodel existing facilities at its Montgomery plant in Alabama. In addition, it has been reviewing sites to build a new dedicated EV factory. Although the site and specific production models have not yet been decided, it is highly likely that electric vehicles under the Hyundai and Kia brands, as well as high-end Genesis brand EVs, will be produced together.

Along with Georgia, the major candidate regions for Hyundai’s new EV factory include Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina. While the Rust Belt in the northeastern U.S., including Detroit, was traditionally considered the center of the automotive industry, these areas have been recognized since the 2000s as emerging automotive production hubs in the U.S. where global automakers have settled. Compared to the northeastern region, these areas have weaker union presence and offer many tax incentives at the state government level, attracting global automakers one after another. Kia built a factory in Georgia in 2006.

The Hyundai Motor Indonesia plant, completed earlier this year. It is the company's first overseas factory dedicated to producing the electric vehicle Ioniq 5.

In particular, competition among state governments to create an EV ecosystem, which has recently seen increased demand, is also fierce. Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz are converting their existing factories in this region into EV factories, and battery plants jointly operated by LG Energy Solution and General Motors (GM), as well as SK and Ford, are also planned to be newly established in this area. Toyota, which entered the EV competition late, has also decided to build a battery plant in this area.

Since U.S. President Joe Biden took office, he has been driving the expansion of EV adoption and announced policies to expand domestic production facilities, prompting global automakers to establish new EV factories in the U.S. one after another. This is because EV demand in the U.S. is expected to surge, and local production systems are considered advantageous in light of EV subsidies and free trade agreements (FTAs).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.