Hyundai’s investments in EVs are paying off with growing U.S. market share while already achieving profitability, Muñoz said during a question-and-answer session with Automotive News Publisher KC Crain.
But the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act fundamentally changed federal EV incentives, removing Hyundai and other automakers that make their EVs outside North America.
Muñoz noted that the law was announced in August after Hyundai Motor Group had already pledged to spend $10 billion in the U.S. for EV projects through 2025, including a new factory in Georgia.
“This was really disappointing for us,” Muñoz said. “Here we are in August, and all of the sudden our cars don’t qualify” for the $7,500 incentive Hyundai vehicles had been receiving based on the previous federal program that now expires Dec. 31.
The loss of EV incentives was a blow to Hyundai’s electrification strategy, Muñoz said.
Hyundai is in discussions with the Biden administration as government agencies work out the exact rules of the new incentive program, Muñoz said.
A solution that Hyundai favors, Muñoz added, would be to implement a three-year transition period for the phaseout of its incentives, giving the automaker time to build its U.S. assembly plant and joint venture battery plant.