Hyundai shows off its new $7.6B electric vehicle plant in Georgia as
Trump announces tariffs
[March 27, 2025] By
RUSS BYNUM
ELLABELL, Ga. (AP) — Hyundai celebrated the opening of its new $7.6
billion electric vehicle factory in Georgia on Wednesday by announcing
plans to expand its production capacity by two-thirds to a total of
500,000 vehicles per year.
The news came as President Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on auto
imports at the White House. Hyundai will be spared from those tariffs on
its U.S.-made vehicles. Trump praised the South Korean automaker on
Monday, saying its American investments are “a clear demonstration that
tariffs very strongly work.”
Hyundai began producing EVs just shy of six months ago at its sprawling
manufacturing plant in southeast Georgia. More than 1,200 people are
working there.
With employees in blue shirts filling bleachers behind him Wednesday,
Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chairman Euisun Chung said the company
plans to increase the plant's capacity from 300,000 vehicles per year to
500,000. He said it shows Hyundai has come to Georgia “to stay, to
invest and to grow.”
“Standing here today, I can say I have never been more confident about
building the future of mobility with America, in America," Chung said.
Hyundai Motor Company CEO Jose Munoz said the Georgia expansion was
“like building a new plant.”
“This plant couldn’t come at a better time than now,” Munoz told
reporters, "because definitely all the cars that we would produce here
are going to be exempted from any tariffs.”
Hyundai employees worked the assembly line Wednesday alongside hundreds
of robots that stamp sheets of steel into fenders and door panels, weld
and paint auto bodies and even park finished vehicles awaiting their
final inspections.
The plant that sprawls across 3,000 acres churns out a finished vehicle
about once a minute. Its 1,200 workers are currently producing two
electric SUV models — the Ioniq 5 and the larger Ioniq 9 set for release
this spring. Hyundai also plans for the plant to make hybrids, which
Munoz predicted will eventually make up one-third of the vehicles
produced there.
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A Boston Dynamics robot works on the line during a media tour at the
Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, Wednesday, March 26, 2025, in
Ellabell, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
 The newly announced Georgia
expansion is part of $21 billion in U.S. investments over the next
three years that Hyundai announced at the White House with Trump on
Monday. They also include a $5.8 billion steel mill in Louisiana to
produce auto parts for Hyundai's assembly plants in Georgia and
Alabama.
Chung told Trump at the White House: “We are really proud to stand
with you and proud to build the future together.”
Before the expansion was announced, Hyundai said it planned to
employ 8,500 total workers at the Bryan County site, about 50 miles
(80 kilometers) west of Savannah. Two partners making batteries at
the site are expected to add another 3,500 workers.
Hyundai hasn't said how many additional workers would be needed to
increase capacity by 200,000 vehicles per year.
During the first half of 2024, the Ioniq 5 was America’s
second-best-selling electric vehicle not made by industry leader
Tesla.
Hyundai took less than two years to start making EVs in Georgia
after breaking ground in the fall of 2022. It was the largest
economic development project the state had ever seen, and it came
with a whopping $2.1 billion in tax breaks and other incentives from
the state and local governments.
EVs accounted for 8.1% of new vehicle sales in the U.S. last year,
up from 7.9% in 2023, according to Motorintelligence.com.
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