Hyundai will invest $US5.54 billion ($US7.76 billion) into a new electric car and battery factory in the US state of Georgia, aiming to start production from 2025.
Construction of the new factory – which will only make electric vehicles and batteries – is to commence in early 2023, and by the first half of 2025 Hyundai hopes to be making 300,000 EVs a year there.
in 2021, Hyundai launched its first vehicle built purely on a ground-up all-electric platform. The Ioniq 5, the first of its pure electric Ioniq series, has proven a winner for its innovative design and forward-thinking features such as vehicle-to-load capability and ultra-fast 350kW charging.
It is planning a number of EVs under the electric series name Ioniq, including a sleek Ioniq 6 sedan and a large Ioniq 7 SUV.
These have won the Ioniq 5 a plethora of awards. In Australia, Hyundai has only been able to secure a small allocation for local sale with each tranche selling out within minutes.
The Friday announcement means more green transition jobs for Georgia, which only weeks ago in early May secured another $US2 billion ($A2.8 billion) EV factory for the state, to be built by Rivian.
The new factory will assist the South Korean automaker towards its goal of becoming a leader in electric vehicles in the highly lucrative US market.
Georgia officials and Hyundai executives signed the agreement in a virtual event. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said he is “thrilled” at what will be the largest project in the state’s history.
“The future of transportation is in the Peach State as we announce the largest project in our state’s history – delivering high-quality jobs on the leading edge of mobility to hardworking Georgians,” said Kemp in a statement.
Hyundai Motor Group executive chair Euisun Chung said: “As one of the world’s most successful and advanced mobility leaders, we are incredibly proud to share our plan to open our first dedicated full EV and battery manufacturing facilities in the U.S.”
“We decided to build our first dedicated EV plant in the U.S. because America embraces change and drives innovation,” said Jaehoon Chang, president and CEO of Hyundai Motor.
“This new EV plant is the future of our business, and It will help us meet the growing demands of our US customers who want leading edge design, safe, zero-emissions vehicles now and in the future”.
Hyundai is a veritable global manufacturer of electric vehicles. In addition to domestic production in South Korea, it also makes the Kona Electric at its factories in Czech and India.
It had been planning to transform its Chongqing factory in China into an EV plant, but Business Korea reports that the carmaker was forced to shut it down in late 2021.
The company says that the new Georgia plant will utilise “a highly connected, automated, and flexible manufacturing system” that will help the carmaker reduce costs and deliver better value to its customers.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.