Georgia Joins Other States in Recent Announcements to Incentivize Electric Vehicle Production

Workers at a factory for Xinwangda Electric Vehicle Battery Co. Ltd, which makes lithium batteries for electric cars and other uses, in Nanjing in China's eastern Jiangsu Province, on March 12, 2021. STR/AFP via Getty Images

The Hyundai Motor Group (HMG) and SK On—a South Korean renewable energy technology firm—will be investing an estimated $4 billion to $5 billion in a northwestern Georgia county to build a battery manufacturing plant for electric vehicles (EV).

Gov. Brian Kemp announced on Thursday that HMG and SK On have signed a memorandum of understanding to partner in the new facility in Bartow County that will be one of the largest economic development projects in state history and estimated to create over 3,500 jobs.

The facility will supply HMG throughout the United States.

“Hyundai Motor Group and SK On are valued partners and key players in our state’s ever-growing automotive industry,” Kemp in a press release. “Since day one, my administration has been focused on bringing jobs and opportunity to communities across the state that may have been overlooked in the past. SK and HMG share this goal, and we’re proud they are choosing to invest even further in this No. 1 state for business.”

SK On, a subsidiary of SK Innovations, is a lithium-ion battery company that employs more than 2,000 at its SK Battery America plant in Commerce, Georgia.

EV-related investments in Georgia have totaled $17 billion since 2020.

In addition to the partnership, HMG broke ground in October on its $5.54 billion in a manufacturing plant in Byron County that will produce electric vehicles and batteries for Hyundai, Genesis, and Kia brands.

HMG Metaplant America will build up to six models and have the capacity to produce up to half a million vehicles a year on its plot of land 30 miles northwest of Savannah.

According to Statista, the EV market in the United States broke records in 2021 with just under 607,600 vehicle sales, 83 percent more than in 2018 when demand for Tesla’s Model 3—the best-selling EV on the market to date—began.

Inflation Reduction Act

President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act has emphasized a crusade to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, an act providing federal incentives to companies that create policies that cater to the theory of man-made climate change.

This had led to corporate demand for renewable technology that proponents of climate change say has less of an impact on the environment than nonrenewables.

Georgia joins South and North Carolina, and Tennessee, in their recent announcements on incentivizing the production of EVs.

On Dec. 6, South Carolina Republican Gov. Henry McMaster and Envision Automotive Energy Supply Company—a Japanese electric vehicle battery technology company—announced an $810 million investment in Florence County to build a battery cell plant that McMaster said will create 1,170 jobs while fulfilling a multi-year partnership with the BMW Group.

In October, the BMW Group announced a $1.7 billion investment in its U.S. operations, including $1 billion to prepare for the manufacturing of electric vehicles at its Plant Spartanburg in South Carolina, as well as an investment of $700 million to build a battery assembly facility in Woodruff.

Critics who challenge the use of renewables as environmentally friendly argue that extraction of the rare earth minerals used to make the batteries rely on methods that leave a deeper carbon footprint while contributing to social instability and violations of human rights.

McMaster’s office said the company will use “responsible sources for its critical battery components—cobalt, lithium, and nickel—providing full transparency of extraction methods and increasing reliance on recycled materials, which will contribute to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from cell production in the new plant.”

On Nov. 28, the Tennessee State Funding Board approved one of the largest cash grants in Tennessee history to win an economic development deal with LG Chem Ltd., a company that plans to invest $3.2 billion to develop a cathode materials plant for electric vehicle batteries.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced his plan to promote the transition of heavy-duty vehicles such as tractor-trailers, school buses, delivery vans, and garbage and utility trucks to zero-emission electric vehicles.

At the North Carolina Medium- and Heavy-Duty Electrification Bootcamp on Nov. 29, Cooper stated that “North Carolina has already made great progress in electric vehicle manufacturing, and we’re well-positioned to be at the head of the global market transition to zero-emission vans, buses and trucks. We’ll continue working with businesses and manufacturers across the state to strengthen our economy, create jobs and confront the climate crisis.”