Hyundai Motor is weighing an expansion of production capacity at its Georgia assembly plant from 500,000 vehicles per year to as many as 800,000 units by 2028, CEO José Muñoz told CNBC on Thursday. The South Korean automaker said after the interview was published that the plans remain under consideration and have not yet been confirmed.

If realized at the upper end of that range, the Georgia Metaplant would surpass rival facilities — including those of Tesla and Toyota Motor — to claim the top spot among U.S. vehicle assembly plants measured by capacity. Toyota's flagship Georgetown, Kentucky complex and Tesla's Fremont, California factory have long ranked among the country's largest plants, and a Metaplant at 800,000 units would also extend the industry's decades-long shift of new assembly capacity toward the U.S. South, a corridor that already hosts operations from Mercedes-Benz in Alabama, BMW in South Carolina, and Volkswagen in Tennessee.

Muñoz said tariffs introduced under President Donald Trump, including a 15% levy on imports from South Korea, have accelerated the company's localization plans. "Tariffs are helping accelerate our localization plan. That's very, very simple," he said. "The good thing is that we had already started before tariffs were announced. So in a way it's helping us to accelerate." Hyundai's push mirrors a broader industry response to the levies, with rivals including Toyota and Honda also announcing moves to expand U.S. output as automakers weigh the cost of tariffs on imported vehicles.

Any such expansion would be funded through Hyundai's already-announced $26 billion U.S. investment commitment, which runs to 2028. The company has targeted a domestic production share of at least 80% of the vehicles it sells in the U.S. market by 2030, compared with roughly 40% in 2024. "For that purpose, we need to add more capacity," Muñoz said.

The $7.6 billion Metaplant, located in Bryan County near Savannah and first announced by Hyundai in 2022, began production in late 2024 and currently builds the all-electric Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9 alongside the Kia Sportage hybrid. The facility is designed to manufacture hybrid and all-electric vehicles for the Hyundai, Genesis, and Kia brands. Under the existing 500,000-unit framework, the Georgia campus would employ upward of 8,500 people directly, with a further 6,900 positions supported at supplier facilities nearby.

Hyundai is also evaluating additional investment for body-on-frame vehicles, such as trucks and SUVs, at a location separate from the Georgia plant, though Muñoz declined to provide further details. Both plans remain under consideration, with no timeline disclosed.

Muñoz, who last year became the first non-Korean CEO of Hyundai Motor, described the U.S. as central to the company's global strategy. "For us, the USA is the most important market in the world besides Korea, which is our headquarters," he said.

Hyundai's U.S. market share has grown from 8.4% in 2020 to 11.2% last year, according to CNBC, citing data from Mobility Global.

Related tickers: Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) -0.60%; Tesla (TSLA) +5.14%; Toyota Motor (TM) +2.66%.

Source: CNBC interview