South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor is to build a dedicated electric vehicle (EV) factory in South Korea, the first automotive plant the company has built in its home country in almost three decades.
Amidst negotiations with the company’s workers’ union to stave off a strike over wages, Hyundai says the new plant will target production beginning in 2025. It follows an announcement  in May that Hyundai was set to invest $US5.5 billion in building a new EV and battery factory in the United States.
The US facility, set to be located in the state of Georgia, would begin construction in 2023 and is targeting production to begin in the first half of 2025, after which Hyundai is aiming to produce 300,000 EVs a year.
The new South Korean EV factory is also reported to begin construction in 2023 and be operational by 2025, but reports from negotiations with its workers’ union suggest that Hyundai has also promised to upgrade existing production lines.
Having already pledged to invest nearly $50 billion in its domestic production, Hyundai is hoping to increase its Korean production rate to 1.44 million EVs annually.
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.