Out of Spec Reviews got a tour of Hyundai Motor Group's Metaplant America in Savannah, Georgia, the 3,000-acre, 11-building facility where both the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9 are currently being produced. The plant is set up exclusively for electric vehicles, which Hyundai defines to include extended-range and hybrid configurations alongside fully battery-electric models. Current production capacity runs around 300,000 vehicles per year, with plans to expand to 500,000 as the factory scales toward its full potential across up to 10 models. Building the Ioniq 5 here made the vehicle eligible for the $7,500 federal tax credit, though Hyundai stated the plant was already planned regardless of that benefit. Hyundai Motor Group is currently the third largest EV seller in the United States and is actively working toward closing the gap with second place.
One thing that stands out during the tour is how quiet the factory is. A significant share of the stamping and body assembly work is automated, including Boston Dynamics Spot robots that walk the perimeter of vehicle bodies and use cameras and AI to check welds and wiring connections before cars are cleared to advance. The Metaplant is also where Boston Dynamics Atlas, the humanoid robot, is doing its pilot testing. Hyundai is vertically integrated to a degree that includes its own steel supply chain, with steel processed on site before stamping. LG is building a battery cell plant directly adjacent to the Metaplant, currently under construction, which will supply cells to the assembly line once online. For now, batteries arrive from an external source. The campus runs hydrogen fuel cell semi-trucks for internal transport, with vehicles reported to have a 450-kilometer unloaded range.
Out of Spec rode along with a factory worker, called a Metapro at this plant, on the test track that every finished vehicle passes through before shipping. The track sequence covers checking all interior controls and infotainment functions, a cobblestone section to surface rattles or loose trim pieces, an emergency brake test, a hill hold and auto hold check, and a lane keep assist and alignment pull test at highway speed. The whole process runs around 12 minutes per car, and individual Metapros handle as many as 40 to 50 vehicles per shift. Also visible at the facility were a Waymo Ioniq 5 built for the autonomous vehicle program under an agreement targeting up to 50,000 units by 2028, with 90 percent to be built at Metaplant, and the Ioniq 9 Calligraphy Black Ink, a blacked-out all-wheel drive performance configuration Hyundai is adding to the lineup.
Bottom line: The Metaplant tour makes it harder to characterize Hyundai's US EV investment as purely tax-credit driven. The robotics integration, the on-site LG battery plant under construction, and the Waymo production partnership all point to a facility built for the long run. The Ioniq 5 and 9 are genuinely made here at scale.