South Korean car manufacturer Hyundai, the parent company for Kia, is in talks to build a second automobile plant in Georgia. As GPB’s Amanda Andrews explains, the new factory would build electric vehicles.
Georgia could be the site of another electric vehicle manufacturing plant. State officials are in talks with South Korean car company Hyundai, the parent company for Kia, to build a factory in Bryan County outside Savannah.
Once complete, the plant would bring an estimated 8,500 jobs to the area. Other details, including projected costs or a formal announcement date, are unknown.
Gov. Brian Kemp said he has been working with international leaders to bring more business to Georgia.
“There was a reason I made my first economic development trip to South Korea and visited with great companies like Kia and Hyundai and a lot of others,” he said. “You know, we've got a great partnership with them and a lot of other South Korean companies and we have for a long time.”
That partnership includes electric vehicle battery maker SK Innovations which is currently building two new production facilities in Jackson County.
Hyundai isn’t new to Georgia. The car company opened its first U.S manufacturing site in West Point under the Kia brand back in 2006.
The new plant would further push Georgia ahead of other states in the Southeast as a regional hub for the emerging EV industry. A year end report from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy listed Georgia as first in the region for manufacturing employment and second for manufacturing investment.
