Hyundai Motor Co. is expected to receive the largest financial incentive package in Georgia's history for its planned plant near Savannah, topping a record set just a few months ago.

Hyundai is set to get $1.8 billion in financial benefits from Georgia and local governments to build a $5.5 billion facility that makes electric vehicles and batteries. The incentives are more than the $1.5 billion Georgia awarded to Rivian Automotive for its $5 billion electric vehicle plant that is under construction about 50 miles east of Atlanta.

South Korea’s Hyundai expects to start construction in 2023 on a 3,000-acre site about 30 miles west of Savannah. The Georgia factory will be Hyundai’s first in the United States to make exclusively electric vehicles.

Georgia’s willingness to award incentives are credited with it beating rival states for the Hyundai electric vehicle manufacturing facility. North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia were all competing to land the project. Companies have hunted around the country in highly visible fashion in recent years for locations to set up major operations, promising to create hundreds if not thousands of new jobs in exchange for incentives. Some critics have argued the process isn't worth the expense to local residents.

For example, online retailer Amazon selected Long Island City in New York in late 2018 for its second headquarters, or so-called HQ2, only to scrap its plans in February 2019 after local officials and residents found out that the company that had at points reached $1 trillion in stock market value had received millions in tax breaks and they protested.

Hyundai plans to hire 8,100 workers for its Georgia plant, which is expected to produce 300,000 vehicles per year starting in 2025. Automakers are racing to get ready for an expected spike in demand for electric vehicles. Global automotive companies have plans to switch most, if not all, of their production from gas- to electric-powered vehicles. Electric vehicle makers are also rushing to open dealerships, sometimes in nontraditional locations like shopping malls.

Hyundai will receive several different incentives, including:

• $500 million in property tax abatement over a 25-year period.
  
• $200 million of roadwork to be completed by the state, including a new Interstate 16 exit, a new site access road and widening of an existing state highway.
  
• $117 million of workforce training programs.
  
• $72 million for land purchases, site work and wetlands mitigation.
  
• $50 million for site development, building construction and machinery purchases.
  
• $7 million to build a railroad spur to a nearby freight rail line.

In exchange, Hyundai agreed to pay a total of $357 million in property taxes over a 26-year period starting in 2026. Hyundai also must create the promised number of jobs or the state can claw back some of its incentive money.

Thomas & Hutton of Savannah is the engineering consultant to the state of Georgia. Edward Kluiters at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough is legal counsel and Robert Boehringer at KPMG is financial adviser to Hyundai. Jonathan Pannell at Gray, Pannell & Woodward is legal counsel to the local development authority.