Hyundai’s New Georgia EV Manufacturing Plant Also Includes Kia

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Hyundai’s new Georgia EV plant, won’t just make Hyundai-branded EVs.

Announced about the same time as the groundbreaking ceremony, Kia announced that the new Savanna, Georgia EV plant under construction will also be used to produce Kia EVs, too. This $5.54 billion plant will produce both EVs and EV batteries and should start pumping out EVs by the start of 2025. In all, it’s a part of an agreement between the state of Georgia and Hyundai to provide around 8,100 jobs and help develop the state into a high-tech manufacturing hub.

This news dovetails neatly with Kia’s already existing Georgia area manufacturing. Kia’s CEO Sean Yoon claims that in tandem with its suppliers, Kia has already created more than 14,000 jobs in Georgia. Currently, the West Point, Georgia factory produces cars like the Kia Telluride.

Although both Hyundai and Kia are sister brands, their actual corporate relationship is more complicated. For example, Kia and Hyundai mostly don’t share vehicle manufacturing facilities; the Hyundai Palisade is sourced from Korea, but its mechanical twin the Kia Telluride is made in Georgia. Thus, this strategic tie-up likely is a way for both brands to band together to make more competitively priced EVs in the face of the US’s Inflation Reduction Act which disincentivizes non-North American-made EVs. The Kia Niro and EV6 are both Korean-made, thus ineligible for the $7,500 plug-in tax credit, under the new rules introduced on August 16.

We aren’t sure which vehicles will be produced at the Savannah, Georgia EV plant, but Hyundai has said it will be capable of making five or six different models at one time. The plant should be operational by early 2025.

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