Water tower at future Hyundai electric vehicle factory to feature design made by SCAD students

Caption

Renderings of the winning design for the water tower at the future Hyundai electric vehicle factory in Bryan County.

Credit: Savannah College of Art and Design

A water tower under construction at Hyundai's future Metaplant electric vehicle factory in Southeast Georgia's Bryan County will bear the artwork of three students from the Savannah College of Art and Design once construction of the roughly 200-foot structure along Interstate 16 is complete in November 2024.

The design of the tank depicts solar panels, a wind turbine, a car rolling off an assembly line toward a hand holding a light bulb, the Bryan County seal and — at the very top, visible from the air — a cog.

Six teams of three students competed over a 10-day period through SCADpro, the college's business solutions studio. Hyundai staff in Bryan County and its headquarters in South Korea, as well as Bryan County officials, provided feedback before selecting the winning design.

“I'm interested in the automotive field, and I felt that Hyundai was a really great opportunity, especially since this water tower will be seen by millions of people going down the highway,” said SCAD industrial design student Jacob Perrone, who was part of the winning team, along with interactive design and gave development student Sakshi Lunawat and graphic design student Julie Noens.

In addition to supplying the Metaplant, the tower will assist in meeting Bryan County's water needs.

Construction of the factory is well underway, as Hyundai announced in October that nearly all of the foundation work was complete and about 80% of the production-related buildings' steel framing installed. The company expects production of electric vehicles and batteries to begin in early 2025.

The facility's 1,878-vehicle parking lot will be covered by solar panels, providing 5.2 megawatts of power. This will meet 5% of the Metaplant's energy needs, with the rest obtained by other renewable sources through power purchase agreements, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Unlike the water tower design, the site will not include wind turbines.

Hyundai says that it plans to achieve carbon neutrality company-wide by 2045.