Electric vehicle battery manufacturer coming to Bartow County

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A person checks the oil in a car engine.

Credit: Courtesy of Capitol Beat

ATLANTA — The new Hyundai electric vehicles plant being built near Savannah will partner with a key supplier on the other side of the state.

Hyundai Motor Group (HMG) and SK On have selected a site in Bartow County for a new EV battery manufacturing facility to supply Hyundai’s EV plants across the country, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday.

The battery plant will create more than 3,500 new jobs through an investment of $4 billion to $5 billion.

“Hyundai Motor Group and SK On are valued partners and key players in our state’s ever-growing automotive industry,” Kemp said. “Since day one, my administration has been focused on bringing jobs and opportunity to communities across the state that may have been overlooked in the past. SK and HMG share this goal.”

SK On was established just last year as the lithium-ion battery subsidiary of SK Innovation, South Korea’s largest energy company, which currently employs more than 2,000 Georgians at a battery plant in Commerce. The new facility in Bartow County is expected to begin operations in 2025.

Not counting Thursday’s announcement, EV-related projects in Georgia since 2020 total about $17 billion in investment and account for more than 22,800 new jobs.

“We’re creating a fully integrated supply chain for automotive [manufacturers] while also connecting battery manufacturers with recyclers to close the loop on battery manufacturing,” Georgia Commissioner of Economic Development Pat Wilson said. “We’re excited for the jobs of the future this will create for Bartow County and Northwest Georgia.”

The state Department of Economic Development’s Global Commerce Team worked in partnership with Georgia EMC, the Development Authority of Bartow County, the Cartersville-Bartow County Department of Economic Development, and the Technical College System of Georgia’s Quick Start program to land the project.

The huge Hyundai EV plant being built near Savannah in Bryan County is the largest economic development project in Georgia history, a $5.5 billion investment expected to create 8,100 jobs when fully built out.

This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.