ELLABELL, Ga. (AP) – Hyundai Motor Group confirmed Friday the company will spend $5.5 billion on a huge electric vehicle plant near Savannah that will employ thousands – a deal Georgia’s governor called the largest economic development project in the state’s history.
Hyundai Motor Group CEO Jaehoon Chang made the announcement with Gov. Brian Kemp at the site of the future factory in Bryan County, where state and local officials purchased a flat, sprawling tract for $61 million last year in hopes of luring a major manufacturer.
“Hard-working Georgians are going to have the opportunity to have a really high-paying, advanced manufacturing job with a great company,” Kemp said in an interview.
Hyundai said it will employ at least 8,100 workers at the plant near the unincorporated town of Ellabell. It will be Hyundai’s first U.S. plant dedicated to assembling electric vehicles and will also produce vehicle batteries.
“This new, high tech EV plant represents the future of our business,” Chang told more than 100 people sipping champagne under a tent pitched at the site on a dusty field of cleared dirt.