atlanta south korean automaker hyundai motor group is expected to announce next week that its building a massive electric vehicle plant near savannah georgia according to a us official familiar with the anticipated announcementhyundai is finalizing those plans as president joe biden is set to travel to south korea next week as part of his first visit to asia during his presidencythe white house and hyundai have been in discussions about the project which is expected to bring thousands of new jobs to georgia and the formal announcement is likely during bidens scheduled may 2021 visit to seoul according to the official who was not authorized to comment and spoke on the condition of anonymitythe official stressed though that details of the formal announcement are still being worked outthe plant could grow to include 8500 employees and would be built on a 2200acre 890hectare site that state and local governments own near the hamlet of ellabell georgia said two people familiar with georgias talks with hyundai the locations about 25 miles 40 kilometers inland from savannah the second person said hyundai would invest more than 7 billion and could also build some cars powered by gasoline engines at the site with an announcement in georgia set for may 20 the people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the confidential talksit would be the second huge electric vehicle plant announced in georgia in less than a year rivian automotive in december announced it would build a 5 billion 7500job electric truck plant about 45 miles 70 kilometers east of atlantahyundai motor group is committed to accelerating electrification in the us said spokesperson michelle tinson we will announce the location of our new us ev plant soonbiden is heading to south korea and japan for talks with those two countries leaders he also will meet during that trip with leaders from the indopacific strategic alliance with the us known as the quad australia india and japansouth korean president yoon sukyeol who took office earlier this week pledged during his campaign to strengthen ussouth korea tiesus sen raphael warnock a georgia democrat met with kia officials tuesday i tell business leaders regularly georgia is open for business warnock said not mentioning the possibility of the planthyundais interest in georgia was first reported by reuters while the atlanta journalconstitution initially reported the announcement plan the company sells cars under the hyundai and kia brandsthe announcement would come in the closing days before georgias may 24 primary elections and could be a lastminute boost to gov brian kemp the republican incumbent leads in polls in his effort to hold off a challenge from former us sen david perdue and others in the gop primary perdue has repeatedly attacked the rivian deal in which georgia and local governments have pledged 15 billion of incentives and tax breaks saying the state is transferring money to liberal financiers and should have consulted with local residents who oppose the plant because it threatens their rural quality of