Korean supplier Duckyang Industrial is set to invest $10 million to open a manufacturing facility in Braselton, Ga., the company’s first such facility in the U.S.
The planned 230,000-square-foot plant will add an estimated 285 jobs in production, maintenance, logistics and warehouse management to the region’s economy.
It will manufacture battery modules and energy storage systems for SK Battery America, a Commerce, Ga.-based developer of lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles. SK Battery America is a subsidiary of the Seoul-based conglomerate SK Innovation.
“By entering the U.S. electric vehicle battery market with SKBA, we will have the opportunity to cooperate with many other automotive companies, including Hyundai and Kia Motors, that already have a manufacturing base in the U.S.,” Duckyang CEO Dong-in Son said in a statement.
A Duckyang official did not confirm when production would start.
Duckyang, headquartered in Ulsan, South Korea, supplies driver’s seat cockpit modules to clients such as Hyundai, Kia, Renault, Samsung Motors, Genesis and Mobis.
Duckyang in 1999 entered a joint venture with Visteon Corp., a suburban Detroit-based supplier that spun off from Ford Motor Co. in 2000. Visteon fully divested its Duckyang stake in 2014.