Sol. Hyundai Motor Group on Tuesday said it will build a 6.5 trillion-won ($4.9 billion) electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in the US with SK Group’s battery unit SK On. The three major subsidiaries of Hyundai Motor Group – Hyundai Motor, Kia and Hyundai Mobis – approved the investment plan in their separate board meetings held on Tuesday. SK ON will hold a board meeting on Thursday to approve the plan.
The two South Korean companies, Hyundai Motor Group and SK On, have agreed to set up a battery plant in Batrey County, Georgia, with a target of starting production in the second half of 2025, under a 50-50-percent joint venture, Yonhap news agency reported. Planned.
The battery plant will produce batteries with a total capacity of 35 gigawatt hours (GWh) a year, and most of the batteries will be used at Hyundai Motor and Kia’s US plants for assembly of about 300,000 EVs a year.
The new battery plant will be located near Hyundai’s Alabama plant, Kia’s Georgia plant and the automaker’s under-construction EV and battery plant in Georgia.
Hyundai Motor and Kia are the world’s third largest carmakers by sales after Toyota Motor and Volkswagen Group.
The announcement comes five months after Hyundai Motor Group and battery maker SK On signed an MoU for EV battery manufacturing in the US.
US President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in August related to reducing inflation. Under this, a tax credit of $ 7,500 will be given to buyers of EVs that are fully assembled in North America. This raised apprehensions that Hyundai Motor and Kia could be left behind in the US as they make most of their EVs at their domestic plants and export them to the US.
The IRA requires that a certain proportion of the mineral used in an EV battery be processed in the US or a country or territory with which the US has a free trade agreement.
Hyundai Motor Group in October began construction of an EV and battery plant in Georgia with a 300,000-unit-per-year manufacturing capacity. The plant is targeted to start commercial production in the first half of 2025.
Earlier this year, Hyundai Motor commenced production of the fully electric GV70 SUV under its independent Genesis brand at its Alabama plant(IANS)
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