How the EV pullback is affecting factories and jobs in the South
For much of the past two decades, most electric vehicle-related investment has gone to Republican-led areas, especially in the Southeast. The fate of these investments is now an open question as the industry retreats from electric cars and trucks.
Automakers and battery manufacturers invested more than $200 billion in EV and battery manufacturing facilities in the U.S. from approximately 2000 to 2024, according to the data and policy research firm Atlas Public Policy. The firm said about 84 percent of battery investments went to Republican-led districts and 62 percent of EV production investments. They were expected to create more than 200,000 jobs, 77% of them in Republican areas.
Nearly half (40%) of that investment went to the Southeast U.S., according to Atlas. For more than half a century, the South has been a manufacturing hub for the automotive industry, but the EV push has driven some of the largest investments in the region’s history.
Federal incentives for electric vehicles were later eliminated through the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, and sales fell short of expectations. Companies that can pivot to other types of tools or completely different products to avoid losses and layoffs.
Hyundai Metaplant
Hyundai Metaplant seen on September 9, 2025 in Ellabell, Georgia.
İlyas Nouvelage | AFP | Getty Images
Hyundai Motor Group is one of the automakers making changes following the EV push.
The group, which includes the Hyundai, Genesis and Kia brands, was for a time the country’s No. 2 electric vehicle seller. Tesla’sAccording to José Muñoz, CEO of Hyundai Motor Company.
But soon after federal incentives for electric vehicles ended, there was a dramatic drop in sales. Overall, HMG’s EV sales increased in the first quarter. They were down 50% in the fourth quarter.
“We’re still doing better than the industry,” Munoz said, “But it did have an impact on the industry, and we could clearly see that in the fourth quarter.”
Hyundai has long had a large factory in Montgomery, Alabama, but when the company announced in 2022 it made an unprecedented bet on a $12.6 billion EV factory and joint battery ventures out of Savannah, Georgia.
Also known as Hyundai Metaplant, it became the largest investment in the history of Georgia. rivyaIts $5 billion factory outside Atlanta. Hyundai estimates the plant will hire about 8,500 workers by 2031, with another 6,900 recruited from nearby suppliers. As of January, the company had hired approximately 1,440 people.
Georgia led the country in EV production investment in 2024, according to Atlas. Republican governor Brian Kemp has said he wants to make the state the “electric mobility capital” of the United States.
Hyundai’s Metaplant factory was originally designed for EV production only. The company actually accelerated construction so that the critically acclaimed and strong-selling Ioniq5 crossover qualified for the federal $7,500 EV tax credit. The Inflation Reduction Act required EVs to be assembled in the US and have minimum US parts content to qualify.
But a “Big, Beautiful Bill” took away those credits as of Sept. 30.
As a result, Hyundai announced an additional investment of $2.7 billion in Metaplant to increase production by 200,000 units and targeted annual production of half a million cars. It is currently planning a mix of 10 hybrid and electric vehicles, and Munoz expects sales volume to be about 30% electric and 70% hybrid and gasoline.
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John Murphy, managing director at Haig Partners, estimates that automakers in the U.S. will likely face losses of at least $100 billion on EV investments, meaning those investments are unlikely to produce the expected profit, or any profit at all.
“This is the largest capital allocation error in the history of the auto industry,” Murphy said.
It’s already started. ford In December, it said it would take a $19.5 billion charge from its unprofitable EV business. General Engines He said he would receive a fee of $7.6 billion. Like international car manufacturers honda, porsche and Volvo warned investors of similar charges worth at least a billion dollars.
Muñoz told CNBC he doesn’t expect Hyundai to make a loss. Hyundai’s key strategy is flexibility, by producing 10 models in a single facility, as it plans to do at Metaplant, or even 12 models at its soon-to-open factory in Ulsan, South Korea; This has given it the ability to change direction as market conditions change.
“The more flexible you are, the less trouble you will have with changes in the environment,” he said. “So I don’t think we’re going to see the kind of damage that we’ve seen with other competitors.”
EV sales forecasts are a fraction of what the industry expected just a few years ago. The Biden administration wanted 50% of new car sales to be electric vehicles by 2030.
“That was the goal,” said Peter Tadros, head of North American powertrain solutions for Bosch, the world’s largest automotive supplier. “Then, over the years, this rate dropped to 35, 25, 17. Now we are at a 17% forecast for 2030. So there is a very, very big difference with the first forecast.”
Bosch had invested $250 million in its factory in Charleston, South Carolina, including plans for the electric motors department.
“50 percent of the market is no longer invested, but 17 percent is also not invested,” Tadros said.
This means the company must adapt. Bosch has managed to move almost all its employees from the EV engines division to other departments. The factory also produces safety devices such as electronic stability control and fuel injection systems; He expects these devices to be in greater demand as the market shifts towards gas-fueled vehicles.
Still, the bet on electric vehicles “causes some pain,” Tadros said.
“You’re stuck with this equipment because you’re not producing as much as it should be producing to make up for that depreciation,” Tadros said. “There it is. It’s ready to go. We look forward to making many more engines in the future. But right now it’s a tough situation for this segment.”
