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An electric vehicle battery plant set to be built by two Korean giants in Bartow County by 2025 will hit $5 billion in investment value and will generate $40 million in tax revenue per year, according to a filing with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.
SK Battery America Inc., which already operates twin battery plants in Commerce, logged the Development of Regional Impact filing to outline how its investment will impact the local community. The state’s community affairs department oversees the granting of tax incentives that help facilitate inbound investments.
SK is partnering on the new plant with Hyundai Motor Group, which is developing its own $5.54 billion “meta plant” in Bryan County and has already begun attracting a parade of suppliers from Korea.
That facility near Savannah is set to turn out 300,000 electric models per year at launch, a number that is expected to increase to 500,000 shortly thereafter. All those cars will require batteries that now must be built in the United States of materials sourced domestically or from free-trade partners in order to qualify for federal sales tax incentives of $7,500.
Hyundai and SK signed a memorandum of understanding to work together on a U.S. battery plant in November. Gov. Brian Kemp announced in December that the investment would come to Cartersville and would total between $4 billion and $5 billion, creating 3,500 jobs.
The February filing disclosed new details about the plant, which at the spending level outlined would be the third $5 billion project in the state’s history — after Rivian’s Covington factory and the Hyundai plant. All of those deals were announced within the last 18 months.
The factory will occupy 3.3 million square feet. It is to be located on Highway 411 on a 1,119 acre plot owned by an entity called Two Run Ranch LLC. According to the filing, 60 percent of the plot will be covered in impermeable surfaces when construction is completed.
The plant is expected to use 3.6 million gallons of water per day and generate 1 million gallons per day of sewage flow, necessitating plans for a new treatment plant and service lines that will be built by the county.
See the full form here and additional forms here and here.
