Hyundai’s new electric car and battery factory near Savannah, Georgia, will be one of the region’s largest employers as it turns out 300,000 vehicles annually, including Kias, the company’s namesake brand and its Genesis electric car line.
The facility 40 minutes from downtown Savannah is called the “metaplant,” a reference to what the carmaker says are its transformational qualities. The factory began operations last fall and is expected to generate 8,500 jobs. Hyundai’s $7.6 billion investment garnered a nod for the project as the winner of the 2025 CoStar Impact Awards for commercial development of the year for Savannah from an independent panel of area industry professionals.
Besides electric cars, the company is making batteries for the vehicles at the site and at a separate location in Bartow County, Georgia, near Atlanta. The Savannah battery operation is a joint venture with LG Energy Solution. The $5 billion Bartow facility, a partnership with SK On, will employ 3,500 people.
Across Georgia, Hyundai’s recent investments are expected to generate 40,000 jobs, according to a 2023 report by the nonprofit Center for Automotive Research. Four technical colleges in the state now have an electric vehicle certificate program; students who complete it receive preferred status when they apply for jobs at the Savannah factory.
About the project: The 12 million-square-foot plant is the automaker’s first mass-production electric vehicle plant in the United States. A second phase, totaling an additional 5 million square feet, is expected to be completed during the second quarter of this year.
What the judges said: "This facility's impact will be rippled, providing thousands of direct and indirect jobs, driving in-migration, impacting the higher education system, generating demand for retail and housing, and drawing suppliers to the area,” said Christa DiLalo, senior research director at Cushman & Wakefield.
The plant “will change the economic fabric of the region," said Michael Toma, who teaches in the business school at Georgia Southern University.
They made it happen: Key players for Hyundai are its president, José Muñoz, Hyundai Motor America chief executive officer Randy Parker and metaplant CEO Oscar Kwon. The Georgia Economic Developers Association's Pat Wilson and Alyce Thornhill and various Savannah-area economic development officials worked to draw the carmaker to the region.
CoStar senior market manager Dave Blake contributed to this article.