By David Shepardson and Heekyong Yang
WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group said on Friday it plans to invest about $5.54 billion to build its first dedicated full electric vehicle (EV) and battery manufacturing facilities in the United States.
Hyundai will break ground on its new facility in Georgia in early 2023 and is expected to begin commercial production in the first half of 2025 with an annual capacity of 300,000 EV units, the company said in a statement.
The South Korean auto group said it intends to create about 8,100 jobs.
Hyundai Motor Group, which houses Hyundai Motor Co and Kia Corp, added that the battery manufacturing facility will be established through a strategic partnership, details of which will be disclosed at a later stage.
Reuters reported last week that Hyundai was in talks to build an EV manufacturing plant in the United States and had held discussions with Georgia officials.
The plant is a key part of Hyundai’s $7.4 billion planned investment in the United States through 2025 to foster future mobility. The state of Georgia expects to attract another $1 billion in additional investment from non-affiliated Hyundai Motor Group suppliers on top of the investment.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Heekyong Yang in Seoul; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
