December 12, 2025 Meta Dynamics

Volume 28 | Issue 4

At HMGMA, AI fuels real innovation - machines helping humanity and driving a stronger, more resilient future.

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By Lorie Greenspan

Electrified is a good way to describe Hyundai Motor Group’s Metaplant America (HMGMA), located outside of Savannah, Georgia. It is Hyundai Motor Group’s first dedicated mass-production Electrified Vehicle (EV) plant. The operation brims with intelligent activity, turning meta manufacturing on its head while utilizing the next wave of advances in automotive processes: order collection, procurement, logistics and production are all optimized utilizing AI and data.

HMGMA boasts that its innovative manufacturing system creates a human-centered work environment where robots assist human workers to build more than 500,000 vehicles per year. Its first vehicle was the 2025 IONIQ 5 and its second will be the 2026 IONIQ 9. HMGMA will eventually produce models for Kia and Genesis, which are part of the HMG family.

“Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America not only represents the Group’s advanced manufacturing capabilities and commitment to innovation, but also our investment in relationships with our partners and communities right here in Georgia,” said Euisun Chung, Executive Chair of Hyundai Motor Group. “With the rich history of craftsmanship and manufacturing in this community, together with the talented workforce at HMGMA we are building the future of mobility with America, in America.”

The company’s plans for its Metaplant date to 2022 when it sought to build its first dedicated fully electrified vehicle and battery manufacturing facilities in the United States. HMG chose the 2,900-acre site in Bryan County, Georgia, for the area’s quality of life, strong regional connectivity, global logistical connections and infrastructure, and existing workforce training programs. Now fully operational, the site employs more than 8,500 workers; more than 6,900 jobs will be created at off-site suppliers. To date, the economic development agreement is Georgia’s largest in state history and totals more than $7.5 billion.

“Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, made possible by our commitment to working with job creators to build fruitful partnerships for decades. Collaborations between HMGMA and Georgia’s universities and technical colleges, including Georgia Quick Start’s on-site training facility, are preparing Georgians for high-quality jobs of today and tomorrow, while our award-winning infrastructure, such as our ports connects companies to markets around the nation and globe,” said Governor Kemp, highlighting the positive impact of the plant on the state’s economy as well as its role in advancing innovative manufacturing and cultivating a skilled labor pool in Georgia.

The megasite consists of the Metaplant, LG Battery Joint Venture (known as HLA Greenpower) and five affiliates including Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai Glovis, Hyundai Transys, Hyundai Steel and Hyundai Material. There are nineteen suppliers located offsite.

Such energy is pulsating in its sheer capacity for innovation. But there’s more.

Miles of meta pros

With 11 cavernous buildings and a massive 7.5 million square feet of space, HMGMA is one of the most technologically advanced manufacturing facilities in the world. The Metaplant employs more than 850 robots and almost 300 Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) working alongside employees, who the company calls Meta Pros.

The amount of meta knowledge, both human and robotic, at HMGMA can fill a digital encyclopedia – each wave of innovative meta data feeds into a comprehensive strategy of precision automotive manufacturing.

The factory is also environmentally friendly; its meta pros park in nearly 1,900 spaces beneath solar roofs that provide up to 5 percent of the plant’s electricity. The bulk of finished vehicles are shipped by rail rather than truck, trimming fossil-fuel emissions and the automaker’s carbon footprint.

As part of an AI-based procurement and logistics system, the AGVs automatically allocate and ferry parts to their proper workstations for just-in-time delivery, saving space, time, and money otherwise used to stockpile parts.

When you leave the HMGMA plant, you can tell people that you have, beyond a doubt, met a pro.

History in the Automotive Making

One of the more unique and cutting-edge features of HMGMA are the Spots, robotic quadrupeds designed by Hyundai-owned Boston Dynamics that use 360-degree vision and “athletic intelligence” to sniff out potential defects on car welds. The Atlas humanoid robots, also from Boston Dynamics, can crawl, cartwheel, and move in sync with their human counterparts, utilizing RGB cameras on their 360-degree swiveling heads in an effort to sense their environments, avoid collisions, and manipulate and move parts in factories. In addition, HMGMA’s welding shop houses 475 industrial robots that assemble the bodies in white.

Such robotic deftness and ability to secure accuracy allows the installation of such items as bulky doors on the assembly line without a bump or scratch. The robotic factory worker frees people for the more intricate craftsmanship that goes into the technical and design innovation of Hyundai’s vehicles.

One of the biggest features of the site is its hydrogen ecosystem. HMGMA has deployed Hyundai Motor XCIENT heavy-duty hydrogen fuel-cell electric trucks for clean logistics operations. A total of 21 XCIENT trucks are currently in operation, representing more than a third of the Glovis America truck fleet at HMGMA, which transport vehicle parts from suppliers across the region to the 2,906-acre Megasite where HMGMA is located on a daily basis.

This industry-leading initiative represents a significant step forward in HMGMA’s leadership efforts to both reduce its carbon footprint and actively promote sustainable practices in daily logistics operations.

Overall, the Metaplant’s technical advances represent an historic achievement that will thrive in the annals of automotive construction, representing a leap in manufacturing efficiency – the possibilities afforded through AI breakthroughs in our current age are what the invention of the assembly line was to the 1910s.

Landmark investment

In other areas, the Group has enabled further growth related to joint battery ventures with LG Energy Solution and SK totaling a $12.6 billion investment. This represents the largest single investment in the state’s history. The Group’s total investments in Georgia are expected to create nearly 40,000 direct and indirect jobs, and $4.6 billion in individual earnings every year, according to the Center for Automotive Research.

HMGMA exemplifies the Group’s dedication to fostering economic growth, driving technological advancements, and delivering sustainable solutions to the U.S. market. To date, the Group has invested more than $20.5 billion in the U.S. in the service of these goals, creating or supporting over 570,000 jobs nationwide.

A total of $6 billion will be allocated to enhance the Group’s parts and logistics business, as well as establishing an Electric Arc Furnace-based integrated steel mill in the U.S. through its affiliate, Hyundai Steel, with an annual steel production capacity of 2.7 million tons. The mill will supply high-quality automotive steel plates to HMGMA when commercial steel production begins in 2029.

“It’s a historic moment that our state-of-theart smart plant is officially open,” said Oscar Kwon, CEO of HMGMA. “It is as important for us to create a comfortable and welcoming work environment for our Meta Pros, as it is for us to create an energy-efficient and technologically advanced plant. It is essential for our Meta Pros to be happy, comfortable and safe in their work environment for long-lasting careers at HMGMA.”

Hyundai Motor America: Who Are They?

Hyundai Motor America has been in the U.S. market for 37 years. The sales volume grew from 168,000 units in 1986 to near 800,000 units in 2016. HMA’s Alabama plant has been producing U.S.-made vehicles since 2005. The annual production volume increased from 91,000 units in 2005 to shy of 400,000 units in 2013 and 2014. HMA’s U.S.-based assembly plant produced about 45 percent of HMA’s vehicles sold in the U.S. market. Globally, Hyundai Motor Group ranks third, with more than 6.8 million units sold in 2022.

Hyundai Motor Company contributed nearly 4.0 million units of vehicles sold worldwide.

Hyundai Motor America offers U.S. consumers a technology-rich lineup of cars, SUVs, and electrified vehicles, while supporting Hyundai Motor Company’s Progress for Humanity vision. Hyundai has significant operations in the U.S., including its North American headquarters in California, the Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama assembly plant, the all-new Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, and several cutting-edge R&D facilities. These operations, combined with those of Hyundai’s 850 independent dealers, contribute $20.1 billion annually and 190,000 jobs to the U.S. economy, according to the company’s economic impact report.

For more information, visit www.hyundainews.com.

Images, for editorial use only, courtesy of Hyundai’s newsroom image gallery.

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