When I traveled to Ellabell, Ga., in May to report on Hyundai Motor Group’s hyperefficient Metaplant—a US $12.6 billion boost to U.S.-based manufacturing of EVs and batteries—the company’s timing appeared solid. At this temple of leading-edge factory tech, Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9 SUVs marched along surgically spotless assembly lines, giving the South Korean automaker a defensible bulwark against the Trump administration’s tariffs and onshoring fervor.
But dark clouds were already gathering. Consumer adoption of EVs had started slowing. The U.S. federal government’s $7,500 clean-car tax credit, which had helped hundreds of thousands of people make the leap to EVs, was being phased out.
Held securely on a yellow jig, a three-row Ioniq 9 SUV glides from station to station in the assembly hall. A view from below shows its generous, 110.3-kilowatt-hour battery pack, which, as in most EVs, sits below the floor of the car. The pack, which is shielded to prevent or limit damage in a collision, is part of an advanced 800-volt architecture for ultrafast DC charging. Christopher Payne/Esto
Near the Savannah-area factory, I drove a smartly designed Ioniq 9, a three-row SUV tailored to the United States’ plus-size tastes. I also saw a battery plant taking shape: a $4.3 billion joint venture between Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, on track to produce lithium-ion cells for Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis models in 2026. That facility is one of 11 low-roofed buildings that encompass 697,000 square meters (70 hectares), their pale green walls designed to blend into the Georgia countryside.
Backed by $2.1 billion in state subsidies, the Metaplant is the largest public development project in Georgia’s history. Covering 70 hectares, it is the centerpiece of Hyundai’s $12.6 billion total investment in the state, including the battery factory built with LG Energy Solution that ICE and other agents raided in September. Christopher Payne/Esto
That battery plant made headlines in September, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents staged a workplace raid that led to more than 300 South Korean workers being detained and deported.
The episode highlighted the transnational cooperation—and tensions—inherent in importing a leading-edge manufacturing operation, a duality that might be familiar to anyone old enough to recall Japan’s game-changing entry into the U.S. automobile market in the 1970s and ’80s. The Metaplant is the largest publicly backed project in Georgia’s history. Its creation was accelerated by the Biden administration’s pro-EV policies, and it was also the centerpiece of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s bid to make his state “the electric mobility capital of the country.” Now, it was suddenly the latest flashpoint in an ongoing culture-and-trade war.
Automakers roll with the punches because they have no choice
An automated guided vehicle (AGV) prepares to pick up a rack of windshields from an automated trailer unloader, for “just in time” delivery to an assembly line where Ioniq 5 EVs are being built. There is no human intervention from the time parts arrive at the Metaplant’s loading docks to their installation. Christopher Payne/Esto
Robots perform myriad tasks, yet human hands are still best for precision work. Jerry Roach, the Metaplant’s assembly manager, says, “I want my people doing craftsmanship. I want to pay people well for the things humans do well, and take away the stuff that’s tedious and boring.” Christopher Payne/Esto
As with other EV makers facing hurricane-force headwinds, including the U.S. rollback of pollution and fuel-economy rules, Hyundai has chosen to forge ahead with its long-laid plans. Company executives call the Metaplant North America’s most automated car factory and the most advanced full-scale factory among Hyundai Motor Co.’s 12 global manufacturing facilities. It rivals or surpasses Japan’s most advanced plants, such as the best operated by Toyota. Compared with the near-Dickensian Detroit auto factory that I toiled at in the 1980s, the stunning facility is a veritable MOMA: a modern museum of manufacturing art.
To have any chance of one-upping China, car factories elsewhere must become hyperefficient, which includes enlisting armies of AI-controlled robots—robots that can potentially work 24/7 and never ask for a raise or a lunch break.
The factory may eventually employ 8,500 people directly, and 7,000 satellite workers, for an annual capacity of 500,000 cars—more than Tesla’s Texas Gigafactory but less than Tesla’s Shanghai plant. This past summer, just 1,340 humans were sufficient to send a constant stream of two Ioniq models down these gleaming assembly lines. The “Meta Pros” working on those lines were earning on average $58,100 a year, which is 35 percent higher than the average in Bryan County, Ga.
Clearly the days of Ford’s River Rouge complex, which employed more than 100,000 in the 1930s, are gone. As in many new factories, you’ll see surprisingly few people beyond the assembly line itself. During my visit, I spotted less than two dozen in a cavernous welding hall, where 475 robots were piecing together car chassis in a whirling, metallic dance. A steel stamping plant was so quiet that no ear protection was required, even as robots stamped out roofs and other body panels, and then stowed them in overhead racks.
Outside, human workers parked their cars beneath solar roofs that generate up to 5 percent of the plant’s electricity. Meanwhile, a fleet of 21 hydrogen fuel-cell trucks, from the Hyundai-owned Xcient, carries parts from suppliers, emitting zero tailpipe emissions. The automaker’s goal is to obtain 100 percent of the Metaplant’s energy from renewables by 2030.
An Ioniq 9 body-in-white, the basic steel skeleton of an automobile, leaves the “main buck” section of the body build line. This line is where the vehicle’s floor and sides meet to form a recognizable car. The line adapts to changing production mixes to meet customer orders, with built-in flexibility to assemble future models.Christopher Payne/Esto
Sparks fly as welding robots piece together the Ioniq 9’s “body-in-white,” the industry term for the basic steel skeleton of a car, prior to the addition of subassemblies such as the suspension, power train, body trim, and interior. The Metaplant’s welding shop houses about 500 industrial robots.Christopher Payne/Esto
Robotic welders have revolutionized car manufacturing, joining the parts of an auto body with levels of speed, precision, and safety that humans can’t match. Such advantages reduce labor costs and scrapped materials. Hyundai is also now experimenting with humanoid robots to perform welding tasks.Christopher Payne/Esto
“Body-complete” robots mount front doors onto Ioniq 5s, using machine vision and laser-measurement systems to ensure an exact fit of movable panels on each body. The robots also install mounting bolts to exact torque specifications, all validated to ensure their work meets safety and quality standards.Christopher Payne/Esto
Smart, silent robots unload trucks
When those trucks roll into docks at the Metaplant, some of the factory’s 850 robots promptly unload their parts. About 300 automated guided vehicles, or AGVs, glide silently across the factory floor with no tracks required, trained to smartly stop for humans. An AGV rolls beneath a finished Hyundai, squeezes the wheels in its robotic arms, then swiftly hoists and ferries the car where it needs to go. A companion AGV further down the line executes the exact same moves. I’ve never seen so many robotic sleds like these, or a tag team move with more efficiency and grace. Within an AI-based procurement-and-logistics system, the AGVs allocate and deliver parts to workstations for “just in time” delivery, avoiding wasted time, space, and money as they stockpile components.
An automated guided vehicle ferries dashboards for the Hyundai Ioniq 9 SUV, including each dashboard’s pair of 30-centimeter display screens. AGVs are programmed to navigate the factory, using cameras and sensors to slow or stop to avoid collisions, and emit spoken warnings to human workers in their path.Christopher Payne/Esto
“They’re delivering the right parts to the right station at the right time, so you’re no longer relying on people to make those decisions,” says Jerry Roach, senior manager of general assembly at the Metaplant.
Roach prefers that his skilled humans focus on craftsmanship, doing jobs with tactile precision that only human hands and vision can accomplish. The idea is to free people from those elements of factory work that are physically taxing, unfulfilling, and, well, robotic, so workers can use their brains and take pride in their specialized skills.
Left: Adjustable-height carriers elevate an Ioniq 5 for easy access to the central fasteners and plugs that will position suspension components and the high-voltage battery, prior to the “marriage” between the upper and lower sections of the vehicle. Those carriers provide flexibility for automated functions and manual operations by the human workers at the plant (whom Hyundai calls Meta Pros). Right: On the final assembly line, an Ioniq 9’s “top hat”—including body panels—is married to the lower “skateboard” structure, which includes the electric motors, battery, and suspension. A finished car then undergoes various tests, including a water bath to check for leaks and a quick road test outdoors. Christopher Payne/Esto
Robots, Roach says, are best tasked with heavy lifting and repetitive tasks, or those that demand digitized speed and accuracy. One example is a “collaborative” robot, sophisticated enough to work safely in close proximity to people, despite its mammoth strength. For the first time at a Hyundai factory, such a robot is installing bulky, heavy doors on the assembly line—a notoriously tricky task to perform without scratching the glossy paint or damaging surrounding panels.
Hyundai is proud of its collaborative robots, including one that can precisely install a heavy door, a tricky task for humans to perform without damaging the panels. Those robots require advanced control systems so that they can work alongside human workers without needing to be fenced off or otherwise isolated.Christopher Payne/Esto
“Guess what? Robots do that perfectly, always putting the door in the exact same place,” Roach says. “So here, that technology makes sense.”
Man’s best friend, or its mechanical counterparts, stroll the factory floor: Spot, the robotic quadrupeds from Hyundai-owned Boston Dynamics, use camera vision, sensors, and what Boston Dynamics calls “athletic intelligence” to sniff out potential welding defects.
Spot, the robot dog designed by Hyundai-owned Boston Dynamics, inspects body welds on an Ioniq 5 for defects. Equipped with a sensor suite, the quadruped bot can recharge autonomously, dynamically work around fixed or moving obstacles, and get back on its feet if it falls. Christopher Payne/Esto
Those four-legged bots may soon have a biped master: Atlas, the humanoid robot, also from Boston Dynamics. The humanoid’s physical dexterity is uncanny, with a 360-degree swiveling head that allows it to walk forward and backward without turning its body. One look at these Atlases crawling, cartwheeling, or breakdancing during testing and you might reasonably conclude they’re a potential Terminator of jobs. Hyundai executives insist that’s not the case, even as they plan to put Atlases to work in their global factories. Boston Dynamics is training these robots to sense their environments and manipulate and move parts in complex sequences.
At this backup station, high-voltage battery fasteners can be installed in an Ioniq 5. The station ensures that the assembly line keeps running even if an automated production system requires servicing. Christopher Payne/Esto
From nearby Interstate 16, Georgia drivers can see freshly painted Ioniq 5s and 9s moving along a conveyor on a windowed bridge—an intentional glimpse of what’s happening inside. They can also see their tax dollars at work, after $2.1 billion in state subsidies. Hyundai is already building a second battery plant in Georgia, and a steel plant in Louisiana, part of an expanded pledge of $21 billion in U.S. investment through 2028.
After their frames are fully welded, Ioniq 5s move along a conveyor [in the background] to an environmentally friendly paint shop. From there, the cars will travel along an elevated bridge, visible from nearby Interstate 16 in Ellabell, Ga., toward final assembly.Christopher Payne/Esto
An Ioniq 5 arrives at its final inspection station. Immediately after, a human driver gets to drive the pristine car for the first time, on a test track just outside the factory. The first Ioniq 5 rolled off the Metaplant line on 3 October 2024, with the larger Ioniq 9 kicking off production in March 2025. Christopher Payne/Esto
In a suddenly inhospitable climate for EVs, there’s nothing automatic about building and selling the cars. But Hyundai and other automakers will keep trying. They don’t have any other choice.
From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
