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Hyundai outlines ambitious U.S. growth plans weeks after ICE immigration raid at battery plant
Jose Munoz, president and CEO, Hyundai Motor Company, speaks during a media tour and grand opening at the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, March 26, 2025, in Ellabell, Ga.
Mike Stewart | AP
NEW YORK — Hyundai Motor reinforced aggressive growth plans Thursday through the end of the decade, despite lowering its profit outlook for the year due to tariffs.
The new targets call for an operating profit margin this year of between 6% and 7%, down from 7% to 8%, and an increase in revenue of between 5% and 6% — up 2 percentage points — compared with 175.2 trillion South Korean won (US$12.7 billion) in 2024.
The South Korean automaker revised its financial targets Thursday ahead of a CEO investor day in New York City. It is the first time the company has hosted the event outside of South Korea as well as the first time CEO José Muñoz — who was promoted to the top job at the automaker beginning this year — led the meeting.
Along with revising financial targets, the world’s third-largest automaker reconfirmed its ambitious growth plans that include increasing annual sales to 5.55 million by 2030. Such results would mark a roughly 34% increase from its global sales last year of 4.14 million units.
Muñoz opened the meeting by discussing the company’s expansion plans, largely fueled by the U.S., which he called the “engine of growth” for the automaker. Hyundai is currently in the process of investing $26 billion from 2025 to 2028 to expand its operations in America.
“This isn’t just about tariff mitigation, it is about building the most advanced, efficient manufacturing ecosystem in the automotive industry,” he said during the event, adding the U.S. is its largest opportunity for expanding localized manufacturing.
Hyundai aims to have more than 80% of its U.S. vehicle sales be produced locally by 2030. That compares to roughly 40% currently. That is expected to include a Hyundai-developed midsize pickup truck as well as potentially a more rugged SUV than the company currently offers, Muñoz said Thursday.
“I think it’s long overdue,” Muñoz told reporters after the event, calling it “a big opportunity.”
The CEO investor event is occurring at an inopportune time for the company, as well as relations between the U.S. and South Korea.
A masked federal agent wearing a Homeland Security Investigations vest guards a site during a raid where about 300 South Koreans were among 475 people arrested at the site of a $4.3 billion project by Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution to build batteries for electric cars in Ellabell, Georgia, U.S. September 4, 2025 in a still image taken from a video.
U.s. Immigration And Customs Enf | Via Reuters
The New York meeting comes weeks after hundreds of workers were arrested during an immigration raid at a jointly owned battery plant between Hyundai and LG Energy Solution in Georgia.
About 475 workers, including more than 300 South Koreans, were arrested in the Sept. 4 raid at the plant in Ellabell, Georgia, according to U.S. immigration officials. Many workers who were detained returned home via a chartered plane following discussions between South Korea and U.S. officials.
Muñoz confirmed Thursday that those detained worked for suppliers, with no Hyundai employees being arrested.
The raid, which was the largest single-site enforcement operation in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s history, was conducted over suspicions about “unlawful” visas or immigration status of workers at the site, U.S. officials have said.
At the beginning of the Thursday meeting, Muñoz expressed “our sincere empathy” for the workers and their families who were impacted by the raid. He said he hopes the U.S. and South Korea can work together to resolve the issue and continue the healthy relationship between the two countries.
“As our executive chair said last week, we hope the U.S. and Korea can work on mutually beneficial solutions for short-term business travel, especially for specialized technical expertise,” Muñoz said.
His comments on visas echoed those from Bob Lee, North American president of LG Energy Solution. Lee on Monday said that may be the “one positive” to come from all this and expressed optimism about the company being able to avoid such actions in the future.
“We’re very supportive of this and we’re cautiously optimistic that this type of thing will not happen again,” Lee said at a Center for Automotive Research conference in Detroit.