Hyundai considers speeding up building new US factory for electric cars

Hyundai Motor Group is contemplating building its first electric-vehicle plant several months earlier than scheduled amid disputes over a new US clean energy law, according to people familiar with the matter. 

The Seoul-based automaker is looking at whether it is feasible to complete construction of a US plant in Savannah, Georgia around October 2024, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details are private. The facility, which will cost around $5.5 billion to build, was initially slated to open in the first half of 2025. Construction hasn’t started yet.

Representatives for Hyundai said there were no plans to change the plant’s original timeline.

President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law in August, offers subsidies of up to $ 7,500 a car for EV makers but only if those cars are assembled in North America. South Korea has said it feels betrayed by the US rules that favor American-made EVs and batteries, particularly because several Korean firms have outlined large-scale EV-related investment plans in the US.

Hyundai Motor Group, whose brands include Kia, Hyundai, and Genesis, currently has no EV plant in the US. 

The carmaker does have a few combustion engine car plants in North America, including one in Alabama. But it’s not easy to convert those facilities into EV plants, one of the people familiar with the matter said.

The Alabama plant can produce about 370,000 cars a year, equal to around 8% of Hyundai’s total capacity, according to the automaker’s website. Electric car sales at Hyundai accounted for about 5.4% of total vehicle sales in the second quarter.