Hyundai to Move Santa Fe Production in Georgia

Although some of you might think this is just one of the million moves made by global automakers to tackle the economic recession, it's not. In fact, we can't say for sure what's the reason since Hyundai has not confirmed this yet but, judging by the details we have at this point, it looks like a pure market strategy move. So, Hyundai is planning to move the Santa Fe production in Georgia where is very own unit Kia Motors is currently building the first US plant, according to a report by hyundai-blog.com citing Korean edaily.

This particular production facility attracted investment worth $1 billion, with the first models projected to enter the assembly lines in November this year.

Basically, the plan is fairly simple: Hyundai will transfer production of Santa Fe from Alabama to Georgia where the company will also manufacture the next generation Kia Sorento. If you still didn't get it, know that Santa Fe and Kia Sorento will share several parts so, building both models in the same plant, pretty much makes sense isn't it?

Meanwhile, the Alabama manufacturing plant will be used by the South Korean automaker to produce passenger cars, probably small models that would better tackle the economic recession and target the recession-hit market in the United States. Furthermore, Hyundai also plans to roll out a redesigned version of the Sonata as soon as 2010, with production projected to begin in December this year.

Just for the record, the Alabama factory opened its doors in 2005 and was responsible for the production of the Sonata sedan. Santa Fe entered production in 2007. According to data provided by the aforementioned source, this particular plant produced in April 8,600 Sonatas and 4,600 Santa Fe units.