South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group and LG Power Answer (LGES) simply introduced that they are going to construct a $4.3 billion EV battery plant within the state of Georgia.

The 2 corporations signed a memorandum of understanding in a signing ceremony immediately at LGES’s headquarters in Seoul.

The 2 corporations will 50/50 collectively open their new EV battery plant in Bryan County, south of Savannah. It will likely be adjoining to Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, presently beneath development.

The annual manufacturing capability of Hyundai and LG’s new battery plant is at 30 GWh, and it will likely be in a position to assist the manufacturing of 300,000 EVs yearly.

The Biden administration’s Inflation Discount Act (IRA) affords a $7,500 tax credit score for EVs that meet home manufacturing necessities – and that features their batteries – in addition to incentives for corporations to construct manufacturing hubs for EVs, batteries, and clear power.

However Hyundai’s EVs, together with its Kia and Genesis EV fashions, presently don’t qualify as a result of they don’t meet these home manufacturing necessities. So the Hyundai Motor Group and LGES have determined to make their newest main joint industrial funding within the US. 

Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA), who led an April commerce mission to South Korea the place he met with senior executives from each corporations, stated in an emailed assertion:

After I led a commerce delegation to South Korea final month, securing this LG-Hyundai battery funding to Georgia was a key purpose. The IRA’s manufacturing incentives proceed to deliver jobs and funding to Georgia.

In response to the Monetary Occasions, Georgia is second within the US, behind South Carolina, in new investments on account of the IRA’s manufacturing incentives.

Building of the Bryan County EV battery plant will begin within the second half of 2023, and battery manufacturing is predicted to start out on the finish of 2025 on the earliest. The funding is predicted to create 3,000 jobs. 

Together with immediately’s announcement, LGES now has seven battery vegetation presently working or being constructed within the US, the place it’s concentrating most of its sources to develop manufacturing capability.

Photograph: Hyundai