The factory, where electric Hyundai, Kia and Genesis models will roll off the assembly line, is expected to open in 2025, and eventually produce 300,000 battery-powered vehicles a year.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp; Georgia’s U.S. Senators, Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff; plus company officials and other state and local leaders are expected to descend on the 3,000-acre site along I-16 in Bryan County for a 9:30 a.m. ceremony. A mid-day community celebration will follow at downtown Savannah’s Enmarket Arena.
Hyundai and state officials have said the community celebration will feature “further announcements,” and the company will “showcase its latest product and technologies,” according to a news release.
The historic groundbreaking comes just two weeks before Election Day, with Kemp fending off a challenge from Democrat Stacey Abrams and Warnock locked in a tight reelection battle with Republican Herschel Walker.
State and local officials wooed the South Korean automaker to Georgia using an incentive package valued at more than $1.8 billion. As part of that agreement, Hyundai committed to employing 8,100 workers and having its suppliers invest $1 billion in Georgia manufacturing operations.
One of those suppliers, Hyundai Mobis, is said to be scouting sites near the future Hyundai factory for a parts facility.
The Hyundai factory, coupled with the Rivian plant planned for a site an hour east of Atlanta, are part of Kemp’s vision — and that of his predecessor, former Gov. Nathan Deal — to turn Georgia into an EV manufacturing powerhouse.
In an interview Monday with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Kemp said the Hyundai plant will not only be big for Savannah, but for other rural communities on the I-16 corridor like Statesboro and Metter.
”Part of our plan to strengthen rural Georgia was to create the rural strike team that’s working on the ground every day,” Kemp said. “But it was also to create mega sites spread out around the state because we know that projects like this have regional significance.
”… We’ve already landed 20 additional EV suppliers in our state,” he added. “Our pipeline is not slowing down. We have 100 projects that we’re working right now. 90 of those are very hot.”
Site work has been underway at both the Hyundai and Rivian sites for some time. But Rivian has been the focus of a vocal opposition group that convinced a judge to shoot down some $700 million in local property tax breaks that formed a central piece of the incentive package that brought the company to Georgia. That court decision is likely to be appealed.
Then, last week, a group of plaintiffs living near the future site of the plant sued, claiming grading work on the Rivian site has clogged nearby waterways and properties with sediment.
State and local leaders have touted Hyundai’s on-site jobs and investment commitments to bring thousands of more jobs at suppliers around Georgia as justification for the huge incentive package the state offered to land the plant. State officials have framed the incentive packages as necessary to land projects that could transform rural stretches of the state. They say the factories ensure well-paying jobs for Georgia’s technical school and college graduates, so they don’t leave for other states.
The left-leaning tax incentive watchdog Good Jobs First said it found states and local governments had contributed some $13.8 billion in incentives to land at least 51 EV and electric vehicle battery plants in recent years. Of that total, Georgia committed some $3.3 billion to Hyundai and Rivian through various grants, tax credits, worker training, land and infrastructure.
Kasia Tarczynska, a senior research analyst at Good Jobs First said Georgia is committing billions of dollars to help wealthy companies that are making the transition to EVs because of market forces and federal policy decisions promoting electrification. However, she questioned whether the use of taxpayer funds is a wise investment.
”Why do states and localities need to subsidize projects that will happen no matter what,” she said. “There are huge opportunity costs here.”
Tuesday’s ceremonies likely bring some relief to state and local officials concerned about fallout from recent changes to U.S. EV tax credits that have caused concern in Georgia economic development circles that Hyundai might rethink or scale down its plans.
President Joe Biden’s signature climate and health bill includes expansion of EV tax credits designed in part, to spur more domestic production of EVs. Compared to traditional fossil fuel-powered vehicles, EVs produce no carbon emissions on the road and are considered a key piece in limiting climate change.
The law requires all EVs to undergo final assembly in North America to qualify for consumer tax credits of up to $7,500 for each vehicle, among other stipulations. Hyundai, which currently manufactures all of its electric vehicles overseas, was among the automakers upset about the change.
Automakers generally support the legislation and experts have said the billions of dollars in the law will spur domestic EV manufacturing supply chains. But companies like Hyundai were not expecting their current vehicles to lose eligibility before their new North American factories are producing EVs.
Warnock, who championed the climate law, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, recently introduced a bill to tweak the tax credit policy to delay the final assembly provision from going into effect until after Hyundai’s factory is operational. He also wrote a letter to the Treasury Department urging flexibility in implementation of the new tax credit rules.
© 2022 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
