SK and Hyundai open new $5B EV battery plant northwest of Atlanta
After years of construction, one of Georgia’s largest development projects has turned on the lights and started producing its wares: High-grade batteries for electric vehicles.
South Korean conglomerates SK On and Hyundai Motor Group last month began initial production at their joint $5 billion battery factory in Bartow County, a spokesperson confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The spokesperson said the joint venture called Hyundai-SK Battery Manufacturing America “is in the early stages of production and plans to gradually scale up operations.”
The project has flown relatively under the radar since its announcement in 2022. But it is a significant part of Georgia’s EV ecosystem, along with Hyundai’s auto factory near Savannah and SK’s other battery plant in Commerce, about an hour northeast of Atlanta.
The Hyundai factory, which it calls its Metaplant, will be the first destination for batteries from the Bartow facility, the joint venture spokesperson said. The opening of the Bartow facility was first reported by Atlanta Business Chronicle.
The SK-Hyundai project was first announced in December 2022, joining Hyundai’s Metaplant and Rivian’s planned EV factory an hour east of Atlanta as Georgia’s largest-ever economic development projects recruited by state leaders. State and locals leaders offered $641 million in grants, tax breaks and other incentives to SK On to recruit the joint battery factory, the AJC first reported months after the project’s announcement.
The companies said the 3.3 million-square-foot factory near Cartersville will employ more than 3,500 workers. It’s unclear how many of those workers have been hired so far.
SK On operates a similar battery plant in Commerce, which represented Georgia’s first large foray into the EV manufacturing supply chain. Since then, the state has become one of the largest hubs for EV production, spanning car factories, parts suppliers and other battery-related industries.
Hyundai also recently completed a different joint battery factory with Korean tech giant LG on its Metaplant campus near Savannah. The factory’s construction was delayed after a high-profile immigration raid last year that strained international relations between the U.S. and South Korea.
Gov. Brian Kemp, who has championed the state’s EV recruitment strategy, is meeting with Hyundai executives this week during an economic development trip to Scotland and Ireland.