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What Auto Investment Really Does to American Communities with Drew Ferguson | The Merge 2025 · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  This episode of AutoCollabs was recorded live at The Merge 2025, hosted by the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. This is AutoCollabs.
• 0:09
  All right, we're here with Drew Ferguson, head of office for Hyundai, Kia, Genesis, right here in Washington, DC. But your accent's gonna give you away. It doesn't sound like a DC accent to me. It's not a DC accent.
• 0:19
  Uh, hail from the great state of Georgia. And, um, great story to tell about Hyundai and Kia in my... In, in, in Georgia, but most importantly in my hometown of West Point, Georgia. Oh, man.
• 0:34
  And so- All right, take us back. Yeah, you were, you gave us the, you gave us the prep right before us, so we gotta get into it. 'Cause you, you have a story to tell about the, some recent history there.
• 0:43
  Yeah, so it's pretty... You know, West Point's a, used to be a textile town. Okay. And following, uh, NAFTA, we just saw an entire industry decimated. And then we've went through about a generation- Wow...
• 0:55
  of, of young people either having to move away because they didn't have a job, couldn't find a job. The economy was very bad. Um, I got involved in politics. Didn't mean to, but little town need...
• 1:07
  You know, I, I ran for mayor on an economic development platform, and lo and behold, our little community landed the Kia Motors manufacturing plant. So cool. Wow.
• 1:17
  And that was, um, you know, so that goes back almost- When was that?... 20 years now. Wow, okay. To that, to, to that process. That, that, it started in earnest, uh, back in 2006.
• 1:29
  Um, and so it's just been an amazing journey to be, um, working with the company as an elected official at the local level, doing everything.
• 1:39
  How, how do you build water lines, and build a water tank, and how do you build power infrastructure and roads to support this amazing new company?
• 1:48
  And then I had the honor and pleasure of representing the entire group while I was a member of Congress, uh, representing the third congressional district of Georgia. Actually, hold on just a second.
• 1:56
  When was that plant finished? 2008 or 9? 2008. I visited that plant. You did? Did you really? I just, like, connected the dots.
• 2:06
  So my first six months in the business, I was a salesperson at a Kia dealership, and I got-- I was good quickly. Yeah. Uh, and there was, um, I'm trying to think of the...
• 2:17
  There was a release of, I think it was the Forte. Uh, or what vehicle? It was a release- Sorento, Sorento. Or maybe it was the So- Sorento. No, it was the Sorento.
• 2:25
  It was the release of the Sorento, and they brought in salespeople from across the country, and I got the opportunity to go there and do a ride and drive of a Sorento at that dealership- [laughs]...
• 2:34
  with one other person from our store. Yeah. Uh, so I've been to that, uh, that, that plant. So, so you, so you have been to the promised land. Yeah, there you go. [laughs] There you go. That's wild.
• 2:42
  I just connected that. Yeah. So, so fast-forward through that- Yeah... um, and now look at the facility that, that we're building in Bryan County, Georgia, just outside of Savannah. Right.
• 2:54
  There's been a lot of talk about it, yeah. A massive facility. Mm. Probably the most advanced automotive assembly plant in the world. Joint ventures with bat- battery makers.
• 3:03
  It is remarkable to see what's happening down there, and the lives that are being changed.
• 3:08
  When you think about the investment, we, we get excited talking about cars, and we think about how cool is it that somebody's gonna buy a car. There's another side of that.
• 3:18
  How cool is it that there's a family that's being taken care of because someone has the honor and privilege of building- Mm... one of these cars? Yeah.
• 3:25
  And it's a great story, and it's a great part of, of Hyundai's vision in America for its investment here across a wide as- array of industries.
• 3:35
  But when you locate one of these advanced manufacturing facilities, company does well, the state does well. Most importantly, those local communities do well for a long time.
• 3:46
  How many jobs is that facility, uh, planning to create? Oh, gosh, I think you'll have, just at the, at, at the mothership, at the OEM, you're probably pushing over 8,000 jobs.
• 3:55
  And then, uh, when you think about all of the just-in-time supply that has to be built around that facility- Yeah... it's, it's many, many, many more. It, it, it, it really is amazing.
• 4:04
  And the connectivity between our facilities in Ellaville, Georgia, West Point, Georgia, Montgomery, Alabama, and soon a new steel plant in Donaldsonville, Louisiana.
• 4:16
  You can start to see the investment in the supply chain, um, that, and, and the, and the production. It, it, it really is amazing. So give us a, give us an idea. What do you spend your time doing on a regular?
• 4:27
  What's your regular initiatives that you get into on a day-to-day? Um, it, right now it is tariffs and trade, and tariffs and trade, and tariffs and trade.
• 4:36
  [laughs] Um, no, it, it- The top three things are tariffs and trade- [laughs] And trade... and tariffs and trade. Um, you know, it, it, listen, we, we have, um...
• 4:43
  And I, I, I officially joined this office May the 1st, and there have been some really significant challenges, uh, that this company has faced and found a way to overcome in, in that, in that period of time.
• 4:55
  Great corporate leadership, great corporate vision. Um, and, and, and the team has navigated very difficult challenges.
• 5:04
  You think about the investment that was made in a battery plant, and then you see the pendulum swing in Congress- Man... dealing, dealing with the, you know, pulling back on the EV tax credits, right? Yeah.
• 5:17
  And, and, and there's a lot. It's not just the end user. For sure. There were a lot of, there were a lot of tax- Oh, a lot of links in that chain. A lot, a lot of things. Yeah.
• 5:23
  So that pendulum swings, and then right on the heels of that, there is, uh, really a true shakeup in the global economy related to tariffs. The supply chain around autos, it, it's, it was massive.
• 5:38
  And then, you know, just another thing that I think that our company has, has been able to navigate and actually land in a really good spot through thoughtful conversations with the administration is immigration.
• 5:50
  You know, so mu- so many times we think about- Interesting... just build these plants. Well, these are very advanced plants, and there's proprietary language.
• 5:58
  And, you know, we need, we need our, we n- we need our workforce from around the world to be able to come in and build these plants and teach Americans how to do it. [clears throat] And, and I think- Interesting...
• 6:09
  one of the, one of the things that's come out of a lot of discussions around immigration is the need for, um, a visa system that works. Mm-hmm. To, to, to be able to have these, these experts come in- Yeah...
• 6:22
  um, to, to help build, to help build and maintain facilities so that our, you know, American, our American citizens that are working in there have a chance to really do it well. Yeah. When, when we were...
• 6:32
  We were actually just in Kazakhstan working with the auto industry there, and, um, even just as they're building facilities there, they have people from other countries coming in to do- Yeah...
• 6:43
  the training, to, to set up the facilities. And so when you talk about building a new facility in Georgia, you know, for a manufacturer that is not located here as their origin, you have to come in and train.
• 6:54
  Like, how are we- Sure... gonna build this vehicle, right? And that's kinda what you're speaking to. You, you, you invest in equipment- Right... and you invest in technology, and you invest in people. Yeah.
• 7:03
  And, and that investment comes both in terms of hard dollars, sometimes it's innovation, but a lot of times it's people working with people. That's right. I, I wanna pivot just a bit to the retail side of the business.
• 7:14
  A lot of our audience is retail.
• 7:16
  Um, when you think about the dealers, uh, uh, that are interacting with the customer and still having to hold in this other hand the fact that the manufacturer is going through all of this, what's your encouragement to the retail side of the business right now as, as these changes do affect them as well?
• 7:34
  I, I, I would say, at least from the Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis standpoint, amazing, amazing cutting edge cars, right? And quality always wins out.
• 7:48
  And where we are in the US economy right now, the global economy, is a snapshot in time, and I think that there're being some very thoughtful, um, discussions, some heavy investments and commitments, um, on both sides of trade deals that are getting done.
• 8:03
  So this is going to shake out. We have to think about this in terms of long-term investments. What's the right strategy from the corporate side, the dealer side?
• 8:13
  And ultimately, it's to meet the consumer where they are with a product that they want. Yeah. Mm. And I think, I think that, you know, I, I, I think about where cars have come from and autos have come from. Mm. Like,
• 8:26
  grew up in the '70s, okay? Early '80s. Um, I was the guy that said, "I will never drive anything that doesn't have a V8 in it." Right. [laughs] You show up with a V6 or a four cylinder- Ooh... why would we even do that?
• 8:40
  Now, we have turbo four cylinders that'll outrun any V8 that I ever owned. Right. Fast-forward, we now have electric vehicles that outperform- Any of them... everything else on the road.
• 8:51
  And I think the unique thing that we're doing right now is that, uh, where, no matter where you are on the environmental part of the conversation,
• 9:01
  you should look at these cars and drive these cars, 'cause they are the baddest thing that is, that is, that has ever hit the road. It's hard to go back. [laughs] Yeah. And we are, and we are leading that charge.
• 9:10
  And you can see, I, I see, I often see, I now can, can make out the Hyundai EV headlights. Aren't they cool?
• 9:17
  At ni- and at nighttime I see them all over, and I live in Upstate New York, so, um, in a pretty rural area actually. Yeah. And I see, I see the Hyundai bars all the time. It goes across, I'm like, "Oh, there's an IONIQ.
• 9:27
  Oh, there's an EV." Yeah. But it's just amazing, and these cars are fantastic. I mean, they really are. And so I, I... Going back to the- And they're fun to drive. Like, yeah. Fabulous. You know?
• 9:37
  I mean, it, it just- Super fun to drive. My wife- It's, it's every... It's like, it's like every time you get in one, it's like being a kid on a go-kart track- I know... with an electric go-kart. Ah. Man.
• 9:45
  It's just that much fun to drive. [laughs] They really give so much control.
• 9:48
  Um, I, this year I bought an F-150 Lightning, and the first time my wife drove it, you know, I explained to her one-pedal driving, but the second she started driving it she goes, "Oh, this, this feels pretty," is what she said.
• 9:59
  The way it drives, she explained it as pretty. Like, she's like, "I just have so much control." Yeah. And then she's the one, like, mashing the gas pedal in the back roads- Yeah... like, sending us all back in our seats.
• 10:07
  Yeah. Yeah. It, it, these things are amazing, and it's so fun to work with a company that is, is actually kind of at the forefront of this and producing- Absolutely...
• 10:18
  producing products that meet, as I said, the consumer where they are, right?
• 10:22
  And, and having, having this wide array, but at the same time, this just really cool, cutting edge, differentiating look and feel and experience that, uh, that we're giving customers right now. It's a lot of fun.
• 10:35
  I love the smile that you give us- It's so good... when you talk about the car. It's so much fun. Yeah. You can see the passion on your face. Drew, thanks so much for spending a bit of time with us. Sure thing.
• 10:41
  I, we appreciate the chance to talk a little bit about our great story. Yeah. Yeah.