Hyundai Showcases $7.6B Georgia EV Plant, Announces Expansion

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ELLABELL, Ga. — Hyundai celebrated the opening of its new $7.6 billion electric vehicle factory in Georgia on March 26 by announcing plans to expand its production capacity by two-thirds to a total of 500,000 vehicles per year.

The news came as President Donald Trump planned to announce tariffs on auto imports at the White House. Hyundai will be spared from those tariffs on its U.S.-made vehicles. Trump praised the South Korean automaker March 24, saying its American investments are “a clear demonstration that tariffs very strongly work.”

Hyundai began producing EVs just shy of six months ago at its sprawling manufacturing plant in southeast Georgia. More than 1,200 people are working there.

With employees in blue shirts filling bleachers behind him March 26, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chairman Euisun Chung said the company plans to increase the plant’s capacity from 300,000 vehicles per year to 500,000. He said it shows Hyundai has come to Georgia “to stay, to invest and to grow.”

“Standing here today, I can say I have never been more confident about building the future of mobility with America, in America,” Chung said.

Workers help assemble Hyundai EVs. About 1,200 people work at the plant right now. (Mike Stewart/Associated Press)

Hyundai Motor Co. CEO Jose Munoz said the Georgia expansion was “like building a new plant.”

Hyundai employees worked the assembly line March 26 alongside hundreds of robots that stamp sheets of steel into fenders and door panels, weld and paint auto bodies and even park finished vehicles awaiting their final inspections.

The plant that sprawls across 3,000 acres churns out a finished vehicle about