Hyundai Motor Company, which owns the Hyundai, Kia and Genesis brands, announced it will invest $8.5 billion this year in further expanding its electrified range, as well as on its first-ever EV factory in the U.S.
The Korean company previously said it will spend around $5.5 billion on its new EV factory in Georgia, which should begin construction in the first quarter of this year, so that leaves $3 billion available for research and development of its current and upcoming EVs, spread across its brands.
“Favorable foreign-exchange rates and higher sales of value-added cars led the growth for 2022,” Hyundai Executive Vice President Seo Gang-Hyun said on an earnings call, quoted in an Automotive News article.
Currently, Hyundai Motor Co. makes several EVs marketed under all of its marques, such as the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6 and Genesis GV60, but it also makes a lot more internal combustion-engined models, some of them assembled at its factory in Alabama.
With a new U.S. factory dedicated exclusively to manufacturing EVs, along with strategic partnerships with local battery suppliers, Hyundai’s EVs will be eligible for the federal tax credits instated by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which should boost the adoption rate of its zero-emission vehicles even further. At the moment, none of Hyundai’s EVs are eligible for the $7,500 tax credit; however, the company will implement a leasing program, which is allowed under the latest iteration of the IRA.
For 2023, the Korean automaker wants to sell 73,000 EVs in the U.S., an increase of 150% compared to last year, and eyes a worldwide sales volume of 330,000 electric cars, which represents a jump of 54% compared to 2022.
Hyundai currently has 12 manufacturing facilities all over the world and is the third largest automaker by volume, after Toyota and Volkswagen. In 2022, the Korean group sold almost 7 million cars worldwide and saw its operating profit double in the last quarter.
Abby Andrews