Jose Muñoz says Hyundai in ‘crisis mode,’ boosting investment
Hyundai is making large EV investments in the U.S. with its $5.5 billion Metaplant, under construction near Savannah, Ga. Six battery-powered models will be built at the complex, which will have the capacity to churn out 300,000 EVs to start.
The dedicated EV factory will build vehicles for the Hyundai, Kia and Genesis brands, as well as EV batteries and eventually scale up for capacity to produce up to half a million vehicles a year.
The plant is expected to open in the fall of 2024 and employ about 8,100 people. Muñoz said the adjacent battery factory should start operating about six months later, maybe sooner.
“We want to get those plants up and running,” Muñoz said.
Hyundai Motor Group announced in May that the battery factory being built as part of the Metaplant project is a $4.3 billion joint venture with supplier LG Energy Solution. To be constructed in Bryan County, Ga., it will have enough annual capacity to produce 30 gigawatt hours of batteries, which can power 300,000 EVs annually.
The LG project will be the second new U.S. battery plant to serve Hyundai.
It follows a similar supply agreement that Hyundai inked with South Korean battery supplier SK On Co. for a $5 billion battery plant in Bartow County, Ga.
That plant will have an annual production capacity of 35 GWh and is expected to mainly supply Hyundai Motor Group auto plants in West Point, Ga., and Montgomery, Ala.
