Hyundai to build $5.5 billion electric vehicle plant in Georgia

Brian Kemp announced on Friday that Hyundai Motor Group plans to make $5.5 billion investment to build an electric vehicle plant and battery manufacturing facility near Savannah, which he says is the largest economic development project in the state's history.

Kemp told FOX Business, "We're very excited it's massive," Kemp said, adding that the project is expected to bring more than 8,100 jobs to Georgia's coastal region.

Kemp was joined by Hyundai President and CEO Jaehoon Chang and other executives of the South Korean automaker at the signing ceremony Friday afternoon in Bryan County, where the plant will be located on a 2,923 acre mega site purchased by the state in conjunction with the local four-county economic development authority.

Hyundai, which also owns Kia, announced last year that it would invest more than $7 billion in the U.S. by the year 2025, and reports that Georgia would be the site of the major project for the company. A U.S. official said last week that the announcement would likely happen on May 20 - 21 during President Biden's visit to South Korea.

Kemp said that his office hasn't had a communication with the White House, and that the Georgia deal has been in the works for several months.

The governor said that it was a competitive project with several other states that ended up on the short list. This deal has been solidified for weeks now, and we're just getting to the point where the company is comfortable announcing it. In a press release, Hyundai said that the investment was in line with the U.S. government's roadmap to accelerate electrification, pointing out the Biden administration's goal of 50% of all new cars sold in the U.S. by the end of the decade.

The company hopes to become one of the top three EV providers in the U.S. by 2026 with the addition of EV and battery production capabilities in the U.S. Hyundai statement. The Hyundai plant is the second huge electric vehicle plant announced for Georgia in less than a year after Rivian Automotive unveiled plans to build a $5 billion plant outside Atlanta that is expected to employ 7,500. The deal, which was previously the largest in state history, involved 1.5 billion in incentives provided by state and local government.

The timing of the Hyundai announcement could be a boost to Kemp ahead of Tuesday's primary election, where he faces challenges from multiple Republicans, including former Sen. David Perdue.

Perdue opposes the Rivian deal and says that many people around the site do not want a mega-facility as a neighbor.

Kemp said that they ran on creating jobs in rural Georgia, and that's exactly what we're doing with the Rivian plant, and that's exactly what we're doing with Hyundai.