Hyundai and LG Energy Systems announced Thursday they will build a $4.3-billion electric battery plant on the site of Hyundai Motor Group’s new electric vehicle assembly plant in southeast Georgia.
The companies will split the investment, starting production as early as late 2025. The companies didn’t say how many people would work at the plant.
Hyundai said it wants to “further accelerate its electrification efforts in North America.”
The South Korean auto maker said in 2022 it would build a $5.5-billion plant to assemble electric vehicles and batteries in Ellabell, near Savannah. The site could grow to 8,100 employees and is slated to begin producing vehicles in 2025.
It’s the second huge electric battery plant that Hyundai is partnering to build in Georgia. Hyundai and SK On, a unit of South Korea’s SK Group, announced in December they would jointly invest $4-billion to $5-billion to build a new plant northwest of Atlanta that would supply electric batteries for Hyundai and Kia electric vehicles assembled in the U.S. That plant, in Cartersville, is supposed to begin production in 2025 and employ a projected 3,500 people.
Hyundai and SK On, a unit of Korea’s SK Group, made the announcement Thursday. The plant, to be located just west of Cartersville, would begin production in 2025 and employ a projected 3,500 people.
The announcement is part of an electric vehicle and battery land rush across the U.S. that’s fuelled in part by federal incentives that are only good for electric vehicles assembled domestically with batteries made in the United States.