Hyundai celebrates the opening of new EV plants in the amount of $ 7.6 billion in Georgia – which means that the South Korean car manufacturer will avoid new Tariff Trump
Hyundai He celebrated the opening of his new Electric Vehicle factory in the amount of $ 7.6 billion on Wednesday, announcing plans to expand his production capacity for two -thirds on a total of 500,000 vehicles a year.
The news arrived as announced by President Donald Trump25% tariff on automatic importin the White House. Hyundai will be spared of these tariffs on their American vehicles. Trump praised the South Korean car manufacturer on Monday, saying that his US investments were “a clear demonstration that the tariffs were very strong.”
Hyundai started producing EV just shyly six months ago in his production facility in southeast Georgia. More than 1,200 people work there.
With employees in blue shirts that fill the bleach behind him on Wednesday, Hyundai engine The Euisun Chung Executive President said the company plans to increase the plant capacity from 300,000 vehicles a year to 500,000. He said he showed that Hyundai had come to Georgia “stay, invest and grow.”
“Standing here today, I can say that I have never been more confident in the construction of the future of mobility with America, in America,” Chung said.
Hyundai Motor Company CEO Jose Munoz said spreading in Georgia “like the construction of a new plant.”
“This plant couldn’t come at a better time than now,” Munoz told reporters, “because all the cars we would produce here will be exempted from any tariff.”
Hyundai employees worked on Wednesday, along with hundreds of robots that imprint steel steel into the blade and door plates, welded automatic bodies, and even parked vehicles waiting for their last inspections.
The plant that spreads to 3,000 hectares eject the completed vehicle approximately once a minute. Its 1,200 workers currently produce two electric SUVs –Ioniq 5and a larger ioniq 9 appointed edition this spring. Hyundai also plans to make the plant to make hybrids, for which Munoz predicted that he would eventually make one -third of the vehicles produced there.
The newly announced expansion in Georgia is part of $ 21 billion in US investments in the next three years Hyundai published at the White House with Trump on Monday. They also include a steel mill of $ 5.8 billion in Louisiani to produce car parts for Hyundai’s prefabricated factory in Georgia and Alabami.
Chung told Trump in the White House: “We are really proud to stand with you and proud to build a future together.”
Before the expansion was announced, Hyundai said he was planning to hire 8,500 total workers at the Bryan County, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Savanna. Two partners who make batteries are expected to add another 3,500 workers to the site.
Hyundai did not say how much additional workers would be required to increase the capacity for 200,000 vehicles a year.
During the first half of 2024, Ioniq 5 was an American second best -selling electric vehicle that did not make a leader in the industry Tesla.
Hyundai took less than two years to start making EV in Georgia after breaking the country in the fall of 2022. It was the biggest project of economic development that the state ever saw and came with incredible$ 2.1 billion in tax reliefand other incentives of the state and local self -government.
Last year, EVS made up 8.1% of the sale of new vehicles in the United States, compared to 7.9% in 2023, Motortelligence.com reports.
This story is originally shown on Fortune.com
