Hyundai’s new president and executive director does not care about Elon Musk’s close relationship with Donald Trump. José Muñoz, who assumed the first position in the car manufacturer on January 1, added that Hyundai has invested a lot in the United States because he sees it as his country “more” market “, not due to the incentives provided through the administration Biden.
Elon Musk has spent more than $260 million helping return Trump to force and co-lead a non-governmental enterprise aimed at cutting unnecessary government spending. While the billionaire business tycoon would possibly come out in Trump’s ear and check to urge the government. To help Tesla and obstruct its competitors, Munoz sees the friendship between musk and Trump as positive.
Read: Hyundai to build hybrids at its Georgia EV factory
“I don’t see it as a concern, honestly,” Muñoz said in a recent interview with Bloomberg. “In any case, having someone close to the American industry and the EV world, I think it is positive for the industry. I think it is in their own interest and probably in the interest of the country to cause investments and expansion and also make sure of that we have competitiveness in our country.
Trump eliminated federal tax credits for electric cars and Musk already supported removing the subsidy, believing it will help Tesla in the long run and hurt its rivals. Despite this, Muñoz points out that Hyundai made the decision to make significant investments in electric vehicles in the United States during Trump’s first administration and not due to the favorable policies promoted by Joe Biden.
Local investments
“We haven’t invested in the U. S. because of the IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) or for incentives in general,” he said. “It is not a smart policy to invest just for incentives, because they can come and go. We believe that the US market is the most important thing for us today and will continue to be so not only in absolute terms but also in terms of growth. Therefore, investing and localizing is a smart strategy. I think that today we are in a bigger scenario than 4 or five years ago.
Hyundai recently opened a $5 billion EV factory in Georgia. This site has already built the Electric Ioniq Five and will eventually space out five more EVs from the Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis brands. The site will also produce several hybrid models and has an overall capacity of 300,000 sets consistent with the year, but has the flexibility to expand to up to five 00,000 sets.