- Hyundai’s new CEO views Musk and Trump’s friendship as a positive force for EV growth.
- Munoz highlights US investments as strategic decisions, not reliant on Biden’s incentives.
- The company’s new $5.5 billion Georgia factory will produce electric and hybrid vehicles.
The new president and chief executive of Hyundai isn’t concerned about Elon Musk’s close relationship with Donald Trump. Jose Munoz, who took the top job at the carmaker on January 1, added Hyundai has invested heavily in the US as it views it as its “most important market,” and not because of incentives provided under the Biden administration.
Elon Musk spent more than $260 million helping get Trump back into office and will co-lead a non-government agency aiming to cut wasteful government spending. While the billionaire business tycoon could get in the ear of Trump and try to urge the government to help Tesla and hinder its competitors, Munoz actually views the friendship between Musk and Trump as a positive.
Read: Hyundai Will Also Build Hybrids At Its Georgia EV Factory
“I don’t see that as a concern, honestly,” Munoz said in a recent interview with Bloomberg. “If anything, having someone who is close to the US industry and to the EV world, I think it should be positive for the industry. I think it’s in his own interest and probably in the interest of the country to trigger investments and growth and also to ensure that we maintain competitiveness in our country.”
Trump is expected to abolish the federal EV tax credit and Musk has previously supported scrapping the subsidy, too, believing it will help Tesla in the long run and hurt its rivals. Despite this, Munoz notes Hyundai made the decision to make significant EV investments in the US during the first Trump administration and not because of the favorable policies introduced by Joe Biden.
Local investments
“We haven’t invested in the US because of IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) or because of incentives in general,” he said. “It’s not a good policy to just simply make an investment because of the incentives, because they can come and go. We believe the US market is the most important for us today and it’s going to continue to be the most important in terms of not only the absolute but also the growth and therefore, investing and localizing is a good strategy. I think we are in a better place today than we were four or five years ago.”
Hyundai recently opened a $5.5 billion EV factory in Georgia. This site has already started to build the all-electric Ioniq 5 and it will ultimately house a further five EVs from the Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis brands. The site will also produce several hybrid models, and has a total capacity of 300,000 units annually but has the flexibility to expand to up to 500,000 units.
