The venture, known as Hyundai-SK Battery Manufacturing America (HSBMA), was established in 2023 with a combined $5 billion investment split evenly between the two companies.
The plant in Bartow County is said to have entered mass production last month and has begun supplying cells to Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in Savannah.
Sprawling across about 3 million square meters, the facility currently employs 3,500 workers and is designed for an annual capacity of 35 gigawatt-hours, enough to power roughly 300,000 electric vehicles a year.
"HSBMA is in the early stages of production and plans to gradually scale up operations," a company spokesperson told AJC. Georgia extended $641 million in tax breaks and incentives to lure the project.
Cells produced at the plant will be assembled into packs by Hyundai Mobis and supplied exclusively to Hyundai, Kia and Genesis EVs built in the United States, the group said when it unveiled the venture in April 2023. SK On already runs a separate battery plant, SK Battery America, elsewhere in the state.
A rival joint venture between Hyundai and LG Energy Solution is also under construction near the Metaplant, though work stalled last year after a sweeping U.S. immigration raid led to the mass detention of Korean workers.
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