How the EV pullback is affecting factories and jobs in the South

How the EV pullback is affecting factories and jobs in the South

Published Sun, Feb 1 2026

7:00 AM EST

Key Points

• Automakers, battery makers and suppliers directed hundreds of billions of dollars into electric vehicle investments across the U.S. in recent years, and almost half of that had been planned for the South.
• But companies have now canceled EV plans and some have faced write-downs.
• Many are pivoting to hybrids as EV sales plunge and looking for ways to make their investments work.

For most of the past two decades, the majority of electric vehicle-related investments have gone to Republican-led districts, especially in the Southeast. With the industry pulling back from electric cars and trucks, the fate of those investments is now an open question.

Automakers and battery makers invested more $200 billion in EV and battery manufacturing facilities in the U.S. from roughly 2000 to 2024, according to data and policy research firm Atlas Public Policy. About 84% of battery investments went to Republican-led districts, as well as 62% of EV manufacturing investments, the firm said. These were expected to create more than 200,000 jobs, 77% of which would be in Republican districts.

Almost half of all that investment — 40% — went to the Southeastern U.S., according to Atlas. For more than half a century, the South has become a manufacturing hub for the automotive industry, but the EV push yielded some of the biggest investments in the history of the region.

Then federal incentives for EVs enacted through the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act were stripped away, and sales fell short of expectations. The companies that can are pivoting to other types of vehicles or entirely different products to avoid losses and layoffs.

Hyundai Metaplant

The Hyundai Metaplant is seen on Sept. 9, 2025, in Ellabell, Georgia.

Elijah Nouvelage | AFP | Getty Images

Hyundai Motor Group is one of the automakers making changes after an EV push.

The group, which includes the Hyundai, Genesis and Kia brands, was for a time the No. 2 seller of EVs in the country after Tesla, according to José Muñoz, CEO of Hyundai Motor Company.

But the end of federal incentives for EVs was immediately followed by a dramatic drop in sales. Overall, HMG's EV sales were growing in the first quarter. By the fourth quarter, they had fallen 50%.

"We still do better than the industry," Munoz said, "But it had an impact in the industry, which we could clearly see in the fourth quarter."

Hyundai has long had a large factory in Montgomery, Alabama, but the company made an unprecedented bet on a $12.6 billion EV factory and joint battery ventures outside Savannah, Georgia, when it announced it in 2022.

The Hyundai Metaplant, as it is called, was the largest investment in Georgia's history, taking the title from Rivian's $5 billion factory outside Atlanta. Hyundai estimated the plant would hire about 8,500 workers by 2031, with another 6,900 at nearby suppliers. As of January, the company had hired about 1,440.

In 2024, Georgia led the nation in EV manufacturing investment, according to Atlas. Its Republican governor, Brian Kemp, had said he wanted to make the state the "electric mobility capital" of the United States.

Hyundai's Metaplant factory was originally intended solely for EV production. The company actually sped up construction so its critically acclaimed — and, for an EV, strong-selling — Ioniq5 crossover would be eligible for the federal $7,500 EV tax credit. The Inflation Reduction Act required that EVs be assembled in the U.S. and have a minimum U.S. parts content to qualify.

But the "One Big Beautiful Bill" took those credits away, as of Sept. 30.

As a result, Hyundai announced an additional $2.7 billion investment in Metaplant to increase production by 200,000 units, targeting an annual output of half a million cars. It is now planning a mix of 10 hybrids and EVs, and Munoz expects sales volumes will be about 30% EVs and 70% hybrid and gas.

Write-downs

Haig Partners managing director John Murphy has estimated that automakers in the U.S. will likely face at least $100 billion in write-downs on their EV investments, meaning those investments are unlikely to yield the expected profits — or any profits at all.

"It's the single biggest capital allocation mistake in the history of the automotive industry," Murphy said.

It's already started. Ford said in December it will take a $19.5 billion charge on its EV business, which has not turned a profit, while crosstown rival General Motors said it will take a $7.6 billion charge. International automakers such as Honda, Porsche and Volvo have all warned investors of similar charges of at least a billion dollars.

Muñoz told CNBC he does not expect Hyundai have write-downs. A key Hyundai strategy is flexibility — making 10 models in single plant — as it plans to do in Metaplant, or even 12 in its soon-to-open factory in Ulsan, South Korea, which has given it the ability to pivot as market conditions change.

"The more flexibility you have, the less issues you have with changes in the environment," he said. "So I think, knock on wood, I don't think we're going to see these types of write-offs that we've seen with other competitors."

EV sales forecasts are a fraction of what the industry was expecting just a few years ago. The Biden administration wanted 50% of new car sales to be EVs by 2030.

"That was the target," said Peter Tadros, president of North America powertrain solutions for Bosch, the world's largest automotive supplier. "Then, over the years, it dropped to 35, to 25, to 17. So now we're at 17% projection for 2030. So a huge, huge gap from the initial projection."

Bosch had made a $250 million investment in its factory in Charleston, South Carolina, which included plans for an electric motors division.

"Now the investment was not made for 50% market, but it was not made also for 17%," Tadros said.

That means the company has had to adjust. Bosch was able to move nearly all employees from the EV motors division to other departments. The factory also produces safety devices such as electronic stability control and fuel injection systems — which it expects to be in greater demand as the market pivots back to gas-burning vehicles.

Still, the bet it made on EVs did "cause some pain," Tadros said.

"You're stranded with this equipment, not producing as many as it should be producing to make up for this depreciation," Tadros said. "So it's here. It's ready to go. We look forward to making a lot more motors in the future. But right now, it's a difficult situation for that segment."

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