South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution Ltd (LGES) announced Thursday that they will build a $4.3 billion electric battery plant in Georgia amid a U.S. push to bring battery production to the states.
LGES supplies automakers including Tesla Inc. and General Motors Co.
Hyundai and LGES will split the investment and construction of the factory in Bryan County, Savannah, Georgia will begin in the second half of 2023. Official battery production will begin at the end of 2025 at the earliest, Hyundai shared in a press release.
"Hyundai Motor Group is focusing on its electrification efforts to secure a leadership position in the global auto industry," Jaehoon Chang, President and CEO of Hyundai Motor Company said.
"We will create a strong foundation to lead the global EV transition through establishing a new EV battery cell plant with LG Energy Solution, a leading global battery producer and long-time partner."
Garrison Douglas, a spokesperson for Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, said the 3,000-job battery plant would be part of the 8,100 overall jobs and the $4.3 billion investment would be part of the previously announced $5.5 billion total.
The Hyundai/LG plant is will have an annual production capacity of 30 gigawatt-hours (GWh), enough for 300,000 EVs, they said. Hyundai has said the Georgia plant could later expand to build 500,000 vehicles annually
"This is exactly what we envisioned when Georgia landed the Hyundai Metaplant in May of last year, and this project is the latest milestone in Georgia’s path to becoming the EV capital of the nation," Kemp said in a statement.
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LGES said that the plant will allow the group to "respond fast to the soaring EV demand in the U.S. market," and "create a stable supply of batteries."
Hyundai will assemble battery packs using cells from the plant, then supply them to the companies' manufacturing facilities for the production of Hyundai, Kia and Genesis EV models, LGES said in a press release.
In addition to the assembly and battery plants, auto parts suppliers have pledged to invest more than $2 billion and hire 4,800 people in the region around the Hyundai site.
The announcements are part of an electric vehicle and battery land rush across the United States.
Under President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, EVs must be assembled in North America, and a certain percentage of their battery parts and minerals must come from North America or a U.S. free trade partner to qualify for a full $7,500 EV tax credit.
Currently, no Hyundai or Kia vehicles are eligible for the tax credit unless they are leased. Hyundai opposed having foreign-made vehicles excluded, in part because it’s building American factories. Kemp has supported that position, but Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff says Hyundai should wait until it is producing vehicles domestically, using American-made batteries.
"As soon as those vehicles are produced in Georgia, they can be eligible for the credits through the incentives in the IRA," Ossoff told reporters in an online news conference Friday morning. "These manufacturing incentives are attracting and accelerating billions of dollars of investments in jobs and advanced energy and electric vehicle production capacity here in the state of Georgia."
The state of Georgia and local governments already have pledged $1.8 billion in tax breaks and other incentives. It’s the largest subsidy package a U.S. state has ever promised an automotive plant, according to Greg LeRoy, executive director Good Jobs First, a group skeptical of subsidies to private companies.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
