ICE Raid Torpedoed Hyundai’s Battery Plant

It’s hard to overstate what a big deal the Hyundai Metaplant outside Savannah, Georgia is—or was supposed to be. More than 100,000 jobs for related industries and projects. Up to 500,000 cars produced per year, including electric vehicles like the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9, plus hybrids too. And nearby, batteries produced for those cars—a kind of tariff armor and long-term manufacturing base in the United States for Korea Inc.

Of course, the Metaplant still can be those things. But right now it’s facing major delays and a serious public relations black eye after a U.S. Department of Homeland Security immigration raid. Now, Hyundai’s global CEO is weighing in on what’s next.

That kicks off this Friday edition of Critical Materials, our morning roundup of industry and technology news. Also on deck today: a look at what went wrong with the Jeep brand in its Stellantis era, and how Chinese automakers are resetting global design. Let’s dig in.

30%: Hyundai CEO Says Battery Production Delayed After Immigration Raid

Hyundai Georgia Metaplant

Photo by: Patrick George

You’ve been living under a rock if you haven’t heard about the huge immigration raid on the Metaplant. Go here for some of our previous coverage. Until now, we haven’t covered it so deeply because it hasn’t really been an EV-specific issue, but now that may be changing.

Hyundai Global CEO José Muñoz told Bloomberg that the battery plant part of the Metaplant is now facing a monthslong delay because skilled South Korean workers brought over to set up and supervise production have been sent home. From that story:

“This is going to give us minimum two to three months delay, because now all these people want to get back,” he said. “Then you need to see how can you fill those positions. And for the most part, those people are not in the U.S.”

The comments show the growing fallout from the Sept. 4 raid in which federal agents detained 475 workers, mostly Koreans, at the battery plant site that’s jointly operated by Hyundai and LG Energy Solution Ltd. With images of detainees shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles, the shock operation has reverberated throughout the industry and strained diplomatic ties between Seoul and Washington.

Efforts to repatriate workers are moving forward and the chartered plane bringing them back is expected to depart the U.S. on Thursday and arrive in Korea on Friday.

Besides the diplomatic concerns between the U.S. and one of its most important allies, the raid may reset how this country facilitates short-term visas for foreign skilled workers who are needed to set up such factories.

Basically, the problem is this: the U.S. wants jobs like the Metaplant provides. But we don’t always have the technology or trained workforce needed to do the job; this is especially true in nascent fields like battery manufacturing. At the same time, it’s no secret that the Trump administration isn’t especially friendly to immigration, including the legal sort, so something here has to give. 

Essentially, the longer-lasting impact to this raid may be how it reshapes that visa policy. Hyundai initially told InsideEVs that EV production at the Metaplant won’t be disrupted by the raids, although clearly battery production will be; we’ll see if the former holds true in the coming weeks and months. 

60%: What Exactly Happened To Jeep? 

2024 Jeep Wagoneer S Launch Edition

Photo by: Jeep

I’d argue few brands, automotive or otherwise, are as iconic as Jeep. In theory, it should be an easy moneymaker for Stellantis, the European-American conglomerate that currently runs it. And yet Jeep sales are way down, the company’s EV strategy has hit the skids, and it’s hard to see any area where it’s currently “winning.” How did this happen?

Bloomberg Businessweek has an excellent deep dive into Jeep’s problems, and I highly suggest you read the whole thing. Among the highlights:

Of the many strategic blunders [former Stellantis CEO Carlos] Tavares made during his four-year reign over what was once a $93 billion conglomerate, perhaps his most egregious was the mismanagement of Jeep, Stellantis’ crown jewel. He jacked up prices and increased production of Jeep’s most expensive trims, without adequately investing in new products, which left gaping holes in an aging lineup and swelling inventory on dealer lots. The extent of the damage became clear in July 2024, when Stellantis reported that its net income had been cut almost in half. By September, exasperated dealers sent an open letter to Tavares accusing him of destroying the company’s brands.

Tavares believed, as his Fiat Chrysler predecessor Sergio Marchionne did, that auto brands pooling resources for scale is the only way to survive in the future. But his caveat, the story said, was that EVs were the company’s future. I’d certainly agree, so long as the products are done right. That has not been the case. 

Why? There’s this gem: 

The vehicle launches didn’t go well. Tavares had gutted factory crews and driven out a deep bench of manufacturing leaders with decades of experience, hampering both EV and gas vehicle rollouts. Earlier that year, line workers in Detroit had huddled on Zoom calls with an engineer in India to troubleshoot. In one instance, a cable needed to hook up the electronics in the Ram pickup was too short, but the schematic on the engineer’s computer 8,000 miles away showed a different length. It took months to pinpoint what could have taken days in person, according to one United Auto Workers leader who was part of the group and asked not to be named commenting on internal matters.

Who knows. Maybe the newfound pivot to gas under the Trump administration’s reversal of Biden’s pro-EV policies will buy some time for Stellantis, and Jeep, to figure out the future. But that pause won’t last forever. 

90%: ‘In China, For China’ Is The New Way Forward

Photo by: Patrick George

Finally, Reuters today digs into the new strategy for Western automakers to catch up in China, where they’re lagging behind high-tech local newcomers: give Chinese partners, engineers and designers the keys to the kingdom. “In China, for China” is the new ethos—cars made there and built to suit local tastes.

We saw this earlier this year with the Audi E5 Sportback, built “in just 18 months using technology provided by Chinese partner SAIC, including batteries, electric powertrain, infotainment software and advanced driving-assisted systems.” More examples are coming. From the story:

Audi expects to start delivering the $33,000 EV to customers in China this month and its global rivals are now also looking to use Chinese intellectual property to roll out new models rapidly. Toyota and Volkswagen have joint development plans for China-dedicated models with technology from Chinese partners GAC and Xpeng, respectively.

Renault and Ford want to go one step further and develop global models on Chinese EV platforms, sources said. Such licensing deals make up relatively small but growing revenue streams for Chinese EV makers and, for now, offer a new quid-pro-quo.

And this part’s super interesting:

This new strategy resembles the “Intel Inside” campaign of the 1990s, where U.S. chipmaker Intel used state-of-the-art components to transform computers into premium products.

In this case, Chinese automakers sell EV technology in a box: the underpinnings for ready-to-build, white label battery-powered cars suitable even for low-volume manufacturers with small budgets.

The Western automakers’ problem is that while they aren’t doing full-blown white-labeling (yet), the Chinese car companies are learning to make new cars “in Europe, for Europe.” Case in point: that new BYD Seal plug-in hybrid wagon, aimed at European buyers. How long until that happens in the U.S. too?

100%: How Would You Fix Jeep?

Photo by: Jeep

I don’t have much interest in new gas cars anymore, but even I’m irrationally mad at how blah the new Jeep Cherokee is. Great that it’s a hybrid, but man, couldn’t they have done anything interesting with its design? 

Pretend you’re in charge of Jeep now, and you need to make it ready for a future where it has to compete globally and with players like Rivian and Scout. What do you propose?

Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com