Ever since the Inflation Reduction Act was announced, automakers have been scrambling to get factories up and running in North America. This is because America currently relies heavily on China for lithium-ion battery production. To continue taking advantage of federal tax credits, automakers who aren't already producing EVs locally will be compelled to do so. Already, an assembler called Magna Steyr that builds cars for Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Toyota is hunting for a location in the United States.

The latest word is that Kia, which already builds several popular models like the Telluride in this country, is allegedly looking to move production of its EV6 electric crossover here as well.

Still a relatively fresh arrival, the Kia EV6 is currently assembled at the Hwasung Plant in South Korea. That would rule it out of contention for EV tax credits due to its foreign assembly. The last thing Kia wants is to hand competitors any advantage, and that's why Reuters is reporting that the automaker will begin building EVs in the USA from 2024. The publication cited information from the South Korean newspaper called Maeil Business and the TV channel SBS that came from an unidentified auto industry source.

Of course, Kia's plans often align with those of its parent company, Hyundai. As with Kia, Hyundai faces losing customers if it doesn't move production of EVs like the Ioniq 5 to the USA, something it is already working on remedying.

The Hyundai Motor Group announced an investment of over $5.5 billion to construct a new factory in Georgia, and we recently learned that Hyundai is trying to start production of the facility a year earlier in 2024. This production plant will complement the brand's current Alabama site.

For Kia, the sooner it can get an EV factory in America, the better. Not only is the EV6 already on sale with an expanding range that includes the high-performance EV6 GT, but the EV9 is expected in 2023. This three-row SUV will be a key product for the American market.

The EV6's rivals include the Volkswagen ID.4, an electric crossover that is already assembled right here in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It's easy to imagine a potential buyer who may be on the fence about these two vehicles being swayed by the one that comes with the tax credit.

New EV tax credits rules will do away with the 200,000 car cap, which is good news for the likes of Tesla that has long since sold more EVs than that. As things stand now, a mere 12 EVs qualify for the new tax credit. For automakers like Kia, the goal for the next year or two is to get on that list as quickly as possible.