This story was updated at 6:00 p.m. Friday, July 24, with more information.
Aimed at the developing electric vehicle market, a German automaker plans to build an $85 million serving plant near Dalton, Georgia, to serve Mercedes-Benz and possibly Volkswagen.
GEDIA Automotive Group will begin painting painting in a few months on a 180,000-square-foot plant where it will create two hundred jobs, officials said Friday.
“As we are a national leader in manufacturing, logistics and workforce training, I’m confident this family-owned business will be very pleased with their decision to join the growing electric vehicle ecosystem here in Georgia,” Gov. Brian Kemp said.
Earlier this year, South Korean battery manufacturer SK Innovation announced plans to invest another $940 million in a $1.67 billion frame facility in northeastern Georgia to force VW’s Chattanooga electric vehicle meeting facility.
Carl Campbell, chief executive of the Dalton-Whitfield Joint Development Authority, said the GEDIA plant aims to manufacture rack parts for a new electric vehicle for Mercedes-Benz, which has a production facility in Vance, Alabama.
But, he said, the company is interested in capturing from VW Chattanooga, where an $800 million expansion is being made to build a battery SUV until 2022.
“I’m very interested in that, ” he said. “I have the capacity and interest of the VW plant.”
GEDIA has been a product producer for the automotive industry since 1955. It has more than 4,300 workers in 8 production plants. Visit gedia.com/en/careers/overview for more information.
Campbell said the SITE of the GEDIA plant at Carbondale Business Park in Whitfield County is in the middle of the Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama, as well as VW Chattanooga and BMW and Volvo services in South Carolina.
“Our geographical location provides them with wonderful merit to serve all european brands around us,” he said.
Operations are scheduled to begin at the GEDIA plant in the third quarter of 2021, depending on the state. GEDIA will use automated press, gain and welding processes to produce parts.
GEDIA already manufactures lightweight structural car parts for VW, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and other companies, the state said, and the new plant will mark the company’s first in the southeast and the time in the United States.
“Approaching the original OEMs serves us better to serve the U.S. market better,” said Markus Schaumburg, one of GEDIA’s two CEOs.
Co-executive director Helmut Hinkel said the company will use patented generation to create frame parts with less weight and particularly superior protection functionality while saving energy and materials.
“The center of the plant will be a hot-forming line with its patented TemperBox, which will allow the company to expand its product diversity and expand its chain,” he said.
Campbell stated that the plant’s salary will be more than $15 consistent with the hour.
He said Whitfield County provided tax incentives on genuine assets and non-public assets for assignment and to help compare the site. The state provides education and a grant, Campbell said.
Although the VW plant is less than an hour’s drive away and was built more than a decade ago, Whitfield County has not attracted many auto suppliers, he said.
“We hope this paves the way for more in the future,” Campbell said, adding that a diversified economy is essential.
SK Innovation has announced plans to expand two battery production plants in Commerce, Georgia, and create 2,600 jobs.
But the Korea Times reported that the U.S. International Trade Commission sided with South Korean company LG Chem, claiming that SK Innovation had attempted to destroy a wide variety of evidence that it had stolen confidential secrets from battery production.
Volkswagen said this week that allowing SK Innovation to supply batteries to the company would prevent VW from suffering a “catastrophic source outage,” which would cause a delay in the arrival of the electric car company in the United States.
Contact Mike Pare at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.