Hyundai has begun electric vehicle manufacturing at its new factory near Savannah, Georgia, a major milestone in Georgia’s emergence as an EV hub.

Full production began earlier this week, and the South Korean automaker held a private opening celebration with its 1,400-plus employees on Thursday at the plant located along I-16 in Ellabell in Bryan County. A public grand opening is expected in early 2025.

“After validating its production processes to ensure its vehicles meet Hyundai Motor Group’s high standards, (the Savannah plant) has started initial production of customer vehicles ahead of schedule and less than two years after breaking ground at the megasite,” Hyundai leaders told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a statement.

The EV assembly facility, known as the Metaplant, is the largest economic development project in Georgia history. Hyundai announced plans for factory in April 2022 and broke ground in October. What once was a more than $5 billion facility later grew to be a $7.6 billion campus.

The plant sits on a nearly 3,000-acre site that will also be home to an EV battery factory currently under construction.

The campus will have 16 million square feet of manufacturing space under roof at full build-out, and employ 8,500.

“The start of production is an incredible milestone towards the future of the Metaplant,” said Pat Wilson, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. “The fact that (Hyundai) chose to celebrate this occasion with its team members demonstrates the value the company places in its current and future (employees). We look forward to more members of the community being able to see and experience this generational investment as Hyundai opens its doors to more Georgians seeking new jobs and opportunities in the coming months.”

The factory came online this spring for test production as assembly line staffing levels reached enough for one shift. Hyundai officials had projected full production would begin in the fourth quarter of 2024, which started Tuesday.

Savannah-area economic development leaders lauded the plant’s opening. A multicounty group, the Savannah Harbor-Interstate 16 Corridor Joint Development Authority, partnered with the Georgia Department of Economic Development to acquire and prepare the site for the factory’s construction

“More than two years of hard work and collaboration came to fruition this week with the start of production at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America,” said Trip Tollison with the Savannah Economic Development Authority. “It is an exciting time for our region and our partners.”

News of the production launch comes on the same day that Waymo, a self-driving car company, announced Hyundai EVs would be part of their taxi fleet.

Also on Friday, the AJC reported that Rivian, the EV startup, has applied for a federal loan to help construct its planned $5 billion factory near Social Circle, 40 miles east of Atlanta. Rivian paused site preparations for the plant earlier this year as a cost-cutting measure.

The Hyundai Metaplant’s opening is another milestone for Georgia in its emergence as a hub for green manufacturing. Gov. Brian Kemp has made attracting manufacturers of EVs, solar panels and batteries a priority in his six-plus years in office. The state leveraged a $2.1 billion incentives package to woo Hyundai to coastal Georgia.

Hyundai Motor Group plans to eventually build EV models for all three of its brands — Hyundai, Kia and Genesis — at the Ellabell plant.

Kia also operates a factory in West Point, which opened in 2009. Kia is building its three-row EV9 SUV there.

Production at the Metaplant opened this week with just a single model, the Hyundai 2025 IONIQ 5. The car is the company’s bestselling EV and the flagship of Hyundai’s EV program, with goals of adding 17 EV models to its lineup by the end of the decade.

(Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff writer Zach Hansen contributed to this report.)

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