The lights are officially on at Hyundai Motor Group and SK On's $5 billion battery facility in Bartow County, Georgia. It's among the state's largest economic development projects, aiming to further onshore battery production for Hyundai and Kia and build out a full ecosystem of EV manufacturing that could pay off for years to come if EV demand truly takes off.
The joint venture with the Korean battery giant, dubbed Hyundai SK Battery Manufacturing America, began trials last month and is now in an early production stage with plans to gradually scale up. At full capacity, Hyundai says it will be able to produce 35 gigawatt-hours of batteries, enough for 300,000 EVs.
View Price on AmazonThe 3.3-million-square-foot facility is also expected to generate around 3,500 jobs, though it's unclear when it will reach full capacity given the recent slowdown in U.S. EV sales following the end of the federal tax credit. Even as American automakers pull back their EV ambitions to focus on more profitable gas trucks and SUVs, Hyundai and Kia have largely stayed the course, with their EV operations now firmly anchored in Georgia.
Both the Hyundai Ioniq 5 crossover and three-row Ioniq 9 SUV are assembled at Metaplant America near Savannah, while the mechanically related Kia EV6 and EV9 are made at Kia's plant in West Point. Hyundai also runs a separate 50-50 joint venture with Korean battery giant LG Energy Solution called HL-GA Battery Company, based in Bartow County.
That plant made headlines for a different reason last year, when it became the site of a massive immigration raid that led to production delays and the detention of Korean nationals who were helping get the facility up and running. Hyundai isn't the only automaker betting big on Georgia, either. Rivian is planning a massive, multibillion-dollar plant of its own in the state.
Source: insideevs.com
