Hyundai Motor Group's Metaplant America (HMGMA), which poured all of Hyundai Motor Group's manufacturing technologies and experiences, including artificial intelligence (AI) and robots, has begun full-scale operation. As a result, Hyundai Motor Group has secured its status as a "million-unit club" that produces more than 1 million vehicles a year in the United States.
On the 26th (local time), Hyundai Motor Group completed HMGMA, which can produce up to 300,000 cars a year. Hyundai Motor Group plans to steadily increase production of HMGMA, which currently produces 2,000 to 3,000 units a month, to produce 300,000 units a year in 2028, three years later. If Hyundai Motor's Alabama plant (370,000 units per year) and Kia's Georgia plant (360,000 units per year) are combined, a system of 1 million units produced in the U.S. will be established. As of 2024, only four automakers in the U.S. produce more than 1 million units a year, including American companies Ford and GM, and Japanese companies Toyota and Honda.
On top of that, Hyundai Motor Group's total production in the U.S. will exceed 1.2 million after the construction of an additional 200,000 plants promised to U.S. President Donald Trump on the 24th. This is more than Honda and Toyota's production in the U.S.
The achievement comes 20 years after Hyundai Motor Group launched its plant in Alabama in 2005 and challenged production in the U.S. Hyundai Motor Group, which sold 400,000 units in 2000, has grown dramatically with the establishment of a factory in the U.S. Starting with the operation of Hyundai Motor's Alabama plant in 2005, it recorded 750,000 units in 2006, and sales surged to 1.13 million units in 2011, the year after the completion of Kia's Georgia plant. Last year, it sold 1.71 million units, higher than Korea (1.25 million units). An official from Hyundai Motor Group said, "It was mainly due to the launch of new cars with excellent marketability and the increase in market responsiveness by quickly reflecting the needs of local customers in production through U.S. factories."
The biggest feature of HMGMA is that it is a "software-oriented factory (SDF) that generously applies the advanced manufacturing technology that Hyundai Motor Group has secured so far. HMGMA is designed to produce high-quality vehicles by applying the latest automated artificial intelligence (AI) and information technology (IT) to analyze all data collected by automatic inspection facilities in real time, while AI analyzes production big data and detects anomalies in advance.
A large number of advanced robots are put in charge of high-weight and high-risk processes or inspections that require complex inspections. It succeeded in fully automating the vehicle door mounting process, which was difficult to automate due to heavy weight and complex operation, for the first time in the world, and it is possible to use robots to inspect painting quality that is difficult to check with the naked eye. About 200 autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are also responsible for moving around outside the factory, supplying parts in a timely manner, and transferring completed vehicles to the quality inspection site. It's Boston againInhaMix's four-legged robot spot will be in charge of precisely checking complex body specifications, and humanoid robot "New Atlas" will also be introduced in the future.
Regarding the quality of the cars to be produced at HMGMA, Hyundai Motor Group Vice Chairman Jang Jae-hoon said, "All employees take pride in delivering good quality cars to customers by introducing the latest technology," adding, "We can produce a total of eight models, so we will respond quickly to changes in customer demand and provide excellent value to customers at the time of delivery."
In HMGMA, not only finished car production plants but also Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai Glovis, Hyundai Steel, and Hyundai Transis form a high-tech future car cluster.
Hyundai Mobis produces 300,000 battery systems and parts modules for electric vehicles annually here and supplies them to HMGMA. Hyundai Glovis plans to operate an integrated distribution center within the site.
At the Georgia Steel Service Center (SSC), Hyundai Steel processes automotive steel plates made of ultra-high strength steel that meet both light weight and collision safety and supplies them to HMGMA. Currently, it is possible to supply 200,000 steel plates per year, and it plans to expand its supply capacity to 400,000 vehicles in the future.
Hyundai Transys procures seats and supporting seat frames to HMGMA, which are the main parts that touch the passenger's body the most and determine the marketability of automobiles. It can supply high-quality seats to 420,000 cars per year. A joint battery cell plant between Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution, which has an annual capacity of 30GWh, is also under construction on the site with the aim of completing it next year. It is capable of supplying batteries to about 360,000 units of the Ioniq 5. In addition, with the completion of HMGMA, 17 domestic partners will enter Georgia to expand their markets and strengthen their global competitiveness.
[Journalist Kim Dong Eun]
