Hyundai to build engine plant in Alabama

[SuperGLS]

Hyundai will be building an engine plant near the current Alabama plant. Although it doesn't say which engines it will build I'm guessing it'll be producing the World/Theta Engine and perhaps some of the other Hyundai engines. Maybe by that time they'll be using the Theta, Lambda, and new V8 only. I'm thinking...

Accent - 1.8/2.0 Theta
Elantra - 2.0/2.4 Theta
Sonata - 2.4 Theta/3.3 Lambda
Azera - 3.8 Lambda
Entourage - 3.8 Lambda
Tuscon - 2.4 Theta
Santa Fe - 3.3 Lambda
Veracruz - 3.8 Lambda
Tiburon - ???
BH Sedan - 4.6 V8/Tau

Any other vehicle could probably use the same engines. Of course, that's for North America only. Then there are all the smaller engines and the diesel engines that we don't get.

From TCC:

Hyundai says its U.S. expansion plans will include a new engine plant in Montgomery, Ala., to begin production in 2008.

The Wall Street Journal says the South Korean automaker will spend $270 million to build the new plant, which will employ about 520 workers. Production will begin in September 2008 and the engines assembled in the plant will go into vehicles produced at the Hyundai plant in Montgomery as well as those built at the rising Kia plant in nearby West Point, Ga.

Hyundai builds the Santa Fe and Sonata in Alabama . Kia's product plans for the Georgia plant haven't been announced.

Hyundai also confirmed it would begin making hybrid cars in 2009, and hopes to make 300,000 of them a year by 2015. Kia, Hyundai's sister brand, recently showed its Rio Hybrid at the Geneva auto show.

Also, as far as the Kia Plant in GA, I'm hoping they will make the Rio or Spectra or Tucson here to have some different "American" products than the Sonata and Santa Fe. We'll see.

[hyunelan2]

Have to nit-pick: The Azera uses the 3.8 Lambda, not the 3.3.
The BH will probably also use the 3.8 on their low-end models.

You think they'll discontinue the 2.7L Mu so soon?

[SuperGLS]

I have no idea about the Mu, I was just throwing around some thoughts.

Here is some interesting info about the Alabama plant from Chosun Ilbo (Korean News):

Hyundai Motor has decided to produce the follow-up to its Grandeur full-size sedan (called the Azera abroad) at its plant in Alabama, U.S., from 2009.

Hyundai has in the past moved overseas the manufacture of parts and even small cars such as the supermini Click (or Getz), but this will be the first time the company has moved overseas the production of a high-end vehicle.

"The company finished the analysis of producing the successor to the Grandeur, the project called 'HG,' at the Alabama factory from late 2009," a Hyundai Motor executive said Monday. "While it is logistically prohibitive to make small automobiles such as the Verna subcompact (Accent) at the Alabama factory, the deluxe sedans can be produced on the Sonata and Santa Fe lines since there is no problem in the supply of engines.”

Toyota produces its Avalon, a Grandeur competitor, at its plant in the U.S. state of Kentucky.

Hyundai sold 26,000 Grandeurs in the U.S. last year and expects to sell another 30,000 this year. The company is also considering adding more luxury vehicle production lines to the Alabama factory to make further inroads into the U.S. market.

So if Hyundai can cover the Sonata/Azera/Santa Fe and Kia the Rio/Spectra/Sportage at their new plant they would have lots of coverage over here. Nice.