AUTO

Kia’s Sportage Hybrid Rolls Off a Georgia EV Line

Hyundai’s dedicated Georgia EV factory has begun building the 2027 Kia Sportage Hybrid, a volume SUV that fills lines electric cars have not.

Published

4 months ago

June 3, 2026

Harry

Kia and Hyundai marked the start of 2027 Sportage Hybrid production in Georgia on June 2, 2026. It is the first Kia and the first hybrid built at Metaplant America, a Bryan County factory announced as a dedicated electric plant.

The compact SUV had been imported from South Korea. Building it in Ellabell takes a 15 percent finished-vehicle duty off Kia’s top seller, and it gives the Metaplant volume that two electric SUVs have not.

Kia’s First Metaplant Vehicle Is a Hybrid

Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America and Kia America treated the day as three firsts at once. The Sportage Hybrid is the first Kia-branded car on the site, the first hybrid electric vehicle on the line, and the third model assembled there after the Hyundai IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 9.

About 200 Meta Pros attended. Many of them had trained on Sportage Hybrid build methods at Kia’s West Point, Georgia plant and in South Korea. During the ceremony the first Georgia-built hybrid rolled to the stage on an autonomous mobile robot, and Gov. Brian Kemp rode in it.

Sean Yoon, president and CEO of Kia North America and Kia America, tied the car to a second Kia bet in the state.

Metaplant in Savannah is our second major investment in Georgia and is a clear testament to our confidence in this state’s future as an automotive powerhouse.

Sean Yoon, president and CEO, Kia North America and Kia America

Tony Heo, president and CEO of HMGMA, credited the Meta Pros and a line designed to take more than one powertrain. Kia said the plant can build up to 10 different vehicles with small changes between them. Future nameplates were not announced.

Kemp called the result a long partnership among Kia, the Metaplant, local communities, and Georgia workers. Stuart Countess, president and CEO of Kia Georgia, joined Yoon and Heo at the event.

2027 Kia Sportage Hybrid Georgia Metaplant production — Kia Sportage Hybrid built at Hyundai Metaplant America

Hyundai Sold Georgia a Dedicated Electric Plant

When Hyundai Motor Group broke ground on October 25, 2022, the pitch was electric. The company’s own release described a dedicated EV and battery plant at the Bryan County mega site, a $5.54 billion outlay with commercial production aimed at the first half of 2025 and annual capacity of 300,000 units. The cars were to be Hyundai, Genesis, and Kia electrics.

The first vehicle, an IONIQ 5, left the line on October 3, 2024. The IONIQ 9 three-row electric SUV followed. Hyundai later put the vehicle campus at $7.6 billion and raised the volume target by 200,000 units, to 500,000 a year. That is still the plant’s stated ceiling. It is not the same figure as Kia’s combined U.S. capacity, which Kia puts at up to 550,000 vehicles a year across West Point and HMGMA.

Jose Munoz, president and CEO of Hyundai Motor Company, had already told investors the original mix would not hold. At the company’s 2025 investor meeting in New York on September 18, 2025, he said hybrids would start coming off the Georgia line the next year because American EV demand was shaky.

THE METAPLANT BUILD CALENDAR

October 25, 2022: Hyundai Motor Group breaks ground on an EV-only Bryan County plant rated at 300,000 vehicles a year.
October 3, 2024: The first car, a Hyundai IONIQ 5, rolls off the line.
March 26, 2025: Hyundai marks the grand opening and lifts the capacity target to 500,000 vehicles a year.
September 18, 2025: Munoz says the plant should run roughly half hybrids and half EVs by 2030.
June 2, 2026: The 2027 Kia Sportage Hybrid becomes the first Kia and first hybrid built there.

A factory that can put a Kia hybrid on the same floor as two Hyundai electrics, less than 20 months after its first car, is doing something older U.S. plants were not built to do. Switching a single-model shop to a new powertrain is usually a years-long retool. Metaplant was sold as an electric specialist. The Sportage Hybrid is how that claim is being used.

Why the Sportage Hybrid Fills the Floor

Kia needed a high-volume SUV that American buyers already want, and the Sportage is that truck. In 2025 it was the brand’s top U.S. model at 182,823 units, up 12.9 percent from 161,917 in 2024, and the best year any Kia nameplate had recorded in the country. Kia’s total U.S. sales that year reached 852,155.

The hybrid slice of that demand kept climbing after Georgia production began. In September 2026 Kia sold 16,033 Sportages, up 10 percent from 14,515 a year earlier. Year-to-date through September the nameplate stood at 145,746 against 134,102 in 2025. Sportage Hybrid sales rose 53 percent in September. Kia said hybrid sales overall jumped 152 percent that month, and total electrified sales (hybrids plus EVs) rose 60 percent.

SPORTAGE AND HYBRID DEMAND

2025 volume: Sportage led Kia in the United States at 182,823 units, a record for any Kia model.
September 2026: Dealers moved 16,033 Sportages, with Sportage Hybrid sales up 53 percent year over year.
Hybrid surge: Kia hybrid sales rose 152 percent in September 2026; in August, Sportage Hybrid sales rose 40 percent.
EV contrast: EV6 sales fell to 835 in September 2026 from 2,116 a year earlier; EV9 fell to 1,955 from 3,094.

Those two electric Kias are built at West Point, not at Metaplant. Their slide still shows why a dedicated EV floor in Bryan County needed a different kind of product. Buyers who want lower fuel use without a full electric have given Kia the volume the IONIQ pair has not. Yoon said the updated Sportage Hybrid had already become one of Kia’s highest-volume models, and that Metaplant was meant to keep that going.

A 15 Percent Duty and a 3.75 Percent Offset

Korean-built passenger vehicles faced a 15 percent U.S. auto duty after Washington and Seoul reset Section 232 treatment, down from the 25 percent rate that still applies as the general auto tariff. The 2027 Sportage Hybrid assembled in Ellabell is not that import. Prior model years came from Kia’s Gwangju plant in South Korea. Local production removes the finished-vehicle duty from U.S.-bound hybrids and shortens the trip from factory to dealer.

Assembly in Georgia also feeds a separate Commerce Department program. U.S. vehicle makers can claim a 3.75 percent assembly offset against Section 232 tariffs owed on auto parts. It is not a cash rebate. The cap is the lesser of 3.75 percent of the value of eligible U.S.-built vehicles and engines, or the maker’s parts-tariff bill. Sportage Hybrids built at HMGMA count toward that pool. Imported hybrids from Gwangju did not.

WHAT LOCAL ASSEMBLY CHANGES

Finished-vehicle duty: The 15 percent charge on Korean-built cars no longer applies to 2027 Sportage Hybrids assembled in Georgia.
Parts-tariff offset: Each eligible U.S.-built hybrid can generate an offset of up to 3.75 percent of vehicle value against Section 232 parts duties.
Korean capacity: Gwangju no longer has to feed the U.S. hybrid mix, which frees that plant for other markets.
Dealer pipeline: A Georgia-built hybrid reaches Kia’s U.S. stores without an ocean crossing.

Kia’s press release did not price the duty savings for buyers. It did say U.S. assembly of more SUVs is meant to grow the number of Kia crossovers built for this market. The 2026 Sportage Hybrid had stayed on sale from Korean stock while the 2027 line spun up. Plant officials said the new model year would follow into stores after the June start.

West Point Still Builds the Gas Sportage

Kia did not move the whole Sportage family to the Metaplant. Gasoline Sportages stay at Kia’s older Georgia plant in West Point, along with gasoline Sorentos, the second-generation Telluride, and the all-electric EV6 and EV9. The Sportage plug-in hybrid is still excluded from that U.S.-assembly list. West Point employs over 3,200 people. HMGMA adds nearly 2,000 Meta Pros, a large share of them from Georgia.

That split is the practical map of Hyundai Motor Group’s U.S. powertrain bet. West Point already knew how to build Sportages. Metaplant had the open slots and the line that could take a hybrid without a full rebuild. The 200 workers who went to West Point and to Korea were the transfer mechanism.

TWO GEORGIA PLANTS, TWO SPORTAGES

Plant	Kia jobs	Sportage role	Other vehicles named
Kia West Point	Over 3,200	Gasoline Sportage	Telluride, EV9, EV6, gasoline Sorento
HMGMA, Ellabell	Nearly 2,000	Sportage Hybrid (2027)	Hyundai IONIQ 5, Hyundai IONIQ 9

Kia now counts up to 550,000 vehicles of annual capacity across those two sites. That Kia total sits beside HMGMA’s own 500,000-unit target for Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis combined. They measure different things. West Point has been Kia’s Georgia base for nearly two decades. Metaplant is the new one, and the Sportage Hybrid is how Kia uses it.

Munoz Wants Half the Plant on Hybrids by 2030

Munoz did not describe the hybrid addition as a temporary patch. He put a number on the mix.

You will see a good balance. I would say roughly 50-50 between hybrids and EVs. Our strength is the flexibility and the ability to produce different types of vehicles in the same factory.

Jose Munoz, president and CEO, Hyundai Motor Company, 2025 investor meeting in New York

He said Hyundai had thought in terms of a 100 percent EV plant at the start, then saw a larger near-term opening in hybrids. The Sportage Hybrid is the first proof on the floor. Kia’s own 2026 sales run matches the bet: hybrid deliveries are up sharply, while the EV6 and EV9 are down. IONIQ 5 production at Metaplant still matters for tax-credit eligibility and for Hyundai’s electric mix, but it is no longer the only product the building has to justify.

Kia sells through nearly 800 U.S. dealers. Those stores are taking 2027 Sportage Hybrids from Georgia while the IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 9 still share the same roof. The next Metaplant models have not been named.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the 2027 Kia Sportage Hybrid built?

The 2027 Sportage Hybrid is assembled at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in Ellabell, Bryan County, Georgia, west of Savannah, from U.S. and globally sourced parts. Kia has not released a U.S. volume target for that line.

Is the Kia Sportage Hybrid made in the USA?

2027 model-year Sportage Hybrids for the U.S. market are assembled in Georgia. 2026 and earlier hybrids sold here were built in South Korea. The Sportage plug-in hybrid is still left off Kia’s U.S.-assembly footnote.

What vehicles does Hyundai Metaplant America build?

The plant builds the Hyundai IONIQ 5, the Hyundai IONIQ 9, and the Kia Sportage Hybrid. Kia said the site can take up to 10 models across Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis, and that later product plans are not being released.

Does Kia still build the Sportage in West Point, Georgia?

Yes. West Point still builds gasoline Sportage and Sorento models, plus the Telluride, EV6, and EV9. It employs over 3,200 people and remains Kia’s first Georgia plant; Metaplant is the second.