Need to assemble 200,000 cars? Just add water.
Hyundai’s Bryan County plant in Ellabell has expanded its permitted wastewater output by about half a million gallons per day to do just that. That water moves throughout the factory to finish metals, purge sediment buildup, cool off equipment and more.
The leftover water is then channeled for treatment to the North Bryan Water Reclamation Facility just across Interstate 16, before bubbling from an underwater outfall into the Ogeechee River.
Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA) is currently able to draw over 6 million gallons of water per day from four wells in Bryan and Bulloch counties that pull from the Floridan aquifer. That’s until the regional surface water plan comes to fruition.
The production of 200,000 vehicles will be made possible by a recent addition of second shift evening workers who began in early August, according to a company spokesperson.
Last year, the company announced an annual production level of up to 500,000 vehicles. But that recently changed, after Hyundai CEO Jose Muñoz told CNBC this summer that production could climb to 800,000.
If achieved, it would make the facility the most productive auto manufacturing plant in the country.
HMGMA currently produces three models, two electric and one hybrid. That number could increase to 10, wrote a company spokesperson in an email.
The plant was initially intended to be the first dedicated full electric vehicle and battery plant in the country, the company announced in 2022.
But it appears market trends have swayed its operations. In the last quarter, nearly a fourth of light-duty vehicles sold in the country were hybrid vehicles. Meanwhile, EV sales are declining likely due to tax credit expiration, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
This story comes to The Current GA through a reporting partnership with GPB News, a non-profit newsroom covering the state of Georgia.
