As of its public grand opening, Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America directly employs a few more than 1,200 people, and the promised total of 8,500 jobs at the main plant and its five onsite suppliers is expected to be realized by 2031. But far from rolling back expectations, company officials on Wednesday announced a future expansion of capacity from the original 300,000 to 500,000 cars a year.
A top executive of the company said that new goal will eventually boost direct employment at the site to 14,000 jobs but added that this also includes two battery plants.
The extra capacity at the Metaplant on the nearly 3,000-acre Mega Site in the Ellabell and Black Creek area of northern Bryan County will result mostly from the addition of a production line for hybrid vehicles, as the plant will not be limited to manufacturing all-electric vehicles, or EVs, as first announced. About 50 reporters and photographers were given a whirlwind tour Wednesday in motorized carts through the massive complex, now mostly finished. But the battery plant being built in a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution is still taking shape.
The media tour preceded a ceremony attended by Gov. Brian Kemp, U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, Republic of Korea Ambassador to the U.S. Hyundong Cho and Hyundai corporate officials to celebrate the largest economic development project in Georgia’s history, two and a half years after they broke ground.
A couple hundred “Meta Pros” as HMG calls employees of the Metaplant, wearing blue company shirts and white HMG caps sat on bleachers behind the stage where the officials spoke. So far the Metra Pros and the hundreds of robots – from small floor-level materials movers and dog-like quadrupeds to giant robotic cranes – are assembling two all-electric vehicle types, the compact Ioniq 5 and the larger Ioniq 9 SUV.
But Hyundai Motor Group officials have plans for other lines, as Hyundai Motor Company President and CEO Jose’ Muñoz indicated in his remarks. For reference, HMG also makes vehicles with the Kia, Genesis and Ioniq labels, as well as Hyundais.
“Hyundai Motor Group is investing an additional $21 billion in the United States,” Muñoz said. “Nine billion of this is to expand the group’s automotive operations. Part of this new investment impacts our operation right here at HMGMA. … It gives me a great pleasure to announce for the first time that we are expanding here at HMGMA from 300,000 units annually to 500,000 units.”
The expanded production at the Ellabell plant won’t account for all of the $9 billion additional investment in automotive operations, and the South Korea-based corporation’s planned $21 billion total new U.S. investment over four years will also include a $5.8 billion steel plant in Louisiana. Altogether, this new commitment double the $20.5 billion Muñoz said HMG has invested in production in the United States since first expanding to America in 1986. The corporation’s originally announced investment to establish the Metaplant was $7.5 billion, and expanding in second and third phases to 500,000 units annually is a more than 66% increase in the production goal.
“Two hundred thousand additional units is like building a new plant,” said Muñoz. “So, on the day we are officially opening this plant, we are announcing a new plant. This speaks to the trust we have in our Meta Pros and the people of Georgia.”
That metaphorical pass was caught and carried forward by the governor in his remarks
“With the new news that came out today, I was telling people earlier we need to have a ribbon cut to open the new facility and then another shovel to do a groundbreaking for the new plant that was announced today,” Kemp said. “I was also thinking that all these hardworking Georgians behind me, you’re either going to have to hire some more people or y’all going to see a lot of overtime, producing another 200,000 vehicles. So that’s certainly exciting.”
The overtime remark got some laughs from the crowd, and Muñoz a little later in a roundtable interview with reporters confirmed that the expansion would, of course, require a larger workforce. That’s when gave the “14,000 direct employment” estimate.
At least 1/3 hybrids
But HMG officials don’t actually expect to add any more buildings at the site to reach the new production goal, as Muñoz confirmed in answer to a question from the Statesboro Herald. He also acknowledged something that had been previously reported elsewhere and mentioned by plant personnel Wednesday, that a substantial portion of the production will be of hybrid vehicles.
“It does require significant investment on equipment, and then most of it is going to be dedicated to hybrids,” he said. “So, originally when we started this project, based on the trends and based on the information, et cetera, we thought that it would be a hundred percent EV plant. I think now we’re moving more into … a one-third, minimum, is going to hybrids, and we are working on that. But to your point, it’s not additional building, but it is additional significant investment on equipment, on people and on systems.”
Euisun Chung, executive chair of Hyundai Motor Group, had met with President Donald Trump on Monday at the White House, along with Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry to announced the plans for Hyundai’s steel plant in Louisiana and overall $21 billion U.S. investment. Trump called Hyundai’s plans clear evidence that “tariffs very strongly work,” but reportedly also said that Hyundai’s products will not be subject to tariffs because of its level of U.S. investment. But whether that exemption will actually apply to the company’s vehicles or materials imported from Korea remains to be seen.
“If would be nice if definitely President Trump’s statement was confirmed,” Muñoz said as part of his answer to a question from an Automotive News reporter.
Current employment
In an email, Bianca Johnson, the Metaplant’s assistant manager for communications and public relations, said the plant currently has 1,232 employees, which doesn’t include Korean expatriates. Among the 1,232 workers, 1,077 are from Georgia, including 185 Bulloch County residents. Also, 895 employees are from what Hyundai calls the Greater Savannah area, a 60-mile radius from the plant.
Bulloch County has the second-highest level of employment in the plant among area counties, with 185 Bulloch residents working there thus far, or 15% of the total. Chatham County is first with 413 employees at the plant, or 33% of its workforce. Effingham County is third, with 103 employees, or 8%, and Bryan County is fourth, with 91 employees at the plant, or 7% of the HMGMA workforce.
The initial commitment of HMG alone was for about 2,600 jobs, “so right now we have about 1,200 of that 2,600 for HMGMA,” said its Chief Administrative Officer Brent Stubbs. The remainder of the 8,500 predicted jobs are with onsite suppliers and the battery joint venture.
Background
Hyundai broke ground on the site in October 2022 and commenced production operations at the plant last fall with the first vehicle, a Hyundai IONIQ 5, rolling off the assembly line Oct. 4.
In a release Wednesday, Hyundai Motor Group said its investment in Georgia related to the Metaplant and joint battery ventures with LG Energy Solution and SK On is $12.6 billion. the largest single business investment in Georgia history. The company said it expects to reach its previously stated goal of 8,500 total jobs at the Metaplant by 2031.
Also, the release cites a report from the Center for Automotive Research that Hyundai’s total investments in Georgia are expected to create nearly 40,000 direct and indirect jobs, and $4.6 billion in individual earnings every year.
As of the end of 2024, more than $2.5 billion in capital investment and approximately 6,900 jobs have been announced by Metaplant suppliers in 12 counties across the state.
In Bulloch County, three tier-one, direct suppliers to Hyundai are currently operating or completing manufacturing plants.
- AJIN Georgia, which manufactures stamped-metal parts that comprise much of the framework of passenger vehicles
- Hanon Systems is a maker of "automotive thermal and energy management" equipment, which includes air-conditioning components
- Ecoplastic America Corporation, will manufacture injection-molded plastic automotive body parts for Hyundai Motor Group vehicles.