Just two weeks after ICE agents detained nearly 500 workers at its Georgia EV battery plant, Hyundai is sending a defiant message to Washington: we're not backing down. The Korean automaker announced a massive $2.7 billion investment to expand the same facility that became ground zero for what may be the largest immigration raid in US history.
The timing couldn't be more pointed. Standing before investors at Hyundai's first-ever CEO Investor Day held outside South Korea, CEO Jose Muñoz opened with an acknowledgment that seemed to hang in the air like smoke from a factory floor. "I want to express our sincere sympathy for the workers from our facility," he said, referring to the September 4th raid that saw ICE agents handcuff and detain workers for days in what South Korean officials are now investigating as potential human rights abuses.
But sympathy aside, Hyundai is making it crystal clear it won't be intimidated. The $2.7 billion cash infusion, spread over three years, will fund Phase Two construction at the Georgia Metaplant - the same facility where nearly 500 workers, including 300 from South Korea, were detained in what witnesses described as brutal conditions.
The strategic calculus is becoming clearer by the day. With the Trump administration wielding tariff threats like a sledgehammer, foreign automakers are scrambling to prove their American manufacturing credentials. Hyundai's response? Go bigger, not home. The expanded plant is projected to pump out 500,000 vehicles annually by 2028, with a laser focus on EVs and hybrids that will create 3,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Numbers tell the story of a company reshaping itself for political reality. By 2030, Hyundai expects 80% of vehicles sold in America will be built locally, with supply chain content jumping from 60% to 80%. It's a massive operational pivot that should go "a long way toward appeasing the Trump administration," as Muñoz diplomatically put it.
But here's where the politics get messy with market reality. The same administration pressuring companies to build American is simultaneously gutting the EV incentives that make electric vehicles attractive to consumers. Muñoz didn't sugarcoat the contradiction, characterizing North America as "hybrid-driven" while Europe and China remain "EV driven." It's corporate speak for: we'll build what Washington wants us to build, even if Washington's policies make it harder to sell.
The raid's shadow still looms large over American ambitions. Workers reported being chained together and held for days in detention centers - treatment that South Korean officials are investigating as human rights violations. Yet the company's response suggests it views the incident as a cost of doing business in Trump's America rather than a reason to reconsider its massive US expansion.