SK and Hyundai plan Georgia electric vehicle battery plant and employ 3,500 people

“Hyundai Motor Group and SK On are valuable partners and key players in our state’s ever-growing automotive industry,” said Kemp in the statement.

A Hyundai representative did not immediately send a message seeking comment. A spokesperson for SK On said the two companies are still reviewing options and discussing details of the collaboration, and more details will be shared in the future.

More than 548,000 EVs were sold in the US in the first nine months of this year, up 70% from the same period in 2021, according to automobile data firm Kelley Blue Book, a Cox like The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Business company. EVs accounted for around 5.4% of all new car sales in the first three quarters of this year, up from 2.7% last year.

David Clayton, Executive Director of Clemson University International Automotive Research CenterHe said that from shipping logistics to attracting labor — especially during times of low unemployment — EV-related companies benefit from clustering in one region.

“The Southeast’s population is growing, attracting people from across the country and the world, which is a good sign that in a tight labor market companies will find the workers they need,” Clayton said.

Federal government increases incentives to build more EVs and batteries in the United States, Last year’s Inflation Reduction Act committed $369 billion to accelerate the country’s move away from fossil fuels. Timothy Lieuwen, Executive Director of Georgia Tech Strategic Energy InstituteHe said the law has led to increased investment in domestic production, even among foreign companies like Hyundai, which has criticized it. aspects of the law to present short-term barriers.

“This is exhibit A of what the IRA is trying to achieve,” he said of the Bartow County announcement. “As an industrial policy issue to encourage investment, particularly manufacturing investment in the US, this signals that it’s working.”

Meanwhile, Georgia has positioned itself as a major player in EVs and has hired the upstart Rivian, which is planning a $5 billion factory that will employ 7,500 people about an hour east of Atlanta.

In October, Hyundai laid the groundwork for its sprawling EV and battery factory along I-16 in Bryan County, where the company plans to hire 8,100 people in its first phase and produce 300,000 EVs per year. That number is expected to rise to 500,000 and include several new EV models, company officials said.

State and local leaders tout Hyundai’s commitment to bring thousands more jobs to suppliers in Georgia, alongside on-site employment and investment, as the justification for a record-breaking $1.8 billion stimulus package for the Bryan County plant.

So far, two major Hyundai suppliers have announced plans to build factories near the Georgia coast.

The Bartow County battery plant will administer a similar package of incentives, including grants, tax breaks, infrastructure and free worker training.

Some economists and observer groups have criticized the extravagance. state and local incentivesclaims that these projects would not happen without them. Left-leaning tax incentive watcher Good Jobs First He said it has found that states and local governments have provided $13.8 billion in incentives in recent years to build at least 51 EV and battery plants. Georgia has committed approximately $3.3 billion of this total to Hyundai and Rivian through various grants, tax credits, worker training, land and infrastructure.

Pat Wilson, state economic development commissionerHe told the AJC that the government has been working with SK on this project for over six months.

The company sought to expand its production capacity in the USA. The Biden administration wants to expand battery production in the US, but most of its supply chain is absent here and is dominated by China.

“We don’t make enough batteries like we do in the US,” Wilson said.

Wilson said SK and Hyundai would trust the Georgia Tech College System and Georgia’s Quick Start worker training program to assist staff in the factory of the future.

“Bartow is a metro county that is one of the fastest growing in the state,” Wilson said. “They’re in a good place to supply the workers they need.”