Kemp at Davos: Keeping Workforce Promises a Key Concern in Georgia’s Electric-Vehicle Push

Delivering the skilled labor that electric car makers like Hyundai and Rivian need to thrive in Georgia is among Brian Kemp’s chief concerns in the state’s ongoing electric vehicle push, the Georgia governor said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“We’ve made a lot of promises to these companies telling them we can supply the workforce,” he said, noting that they chose Georgia for its infrastructure, business environment and supportive government, but also because they were confident in the state’s ability to cultivate talent.

His response came to the perennial panel question: What keeps you up at night?

“We’re not trying to tell the companies what to do; we’re trying to let them know that we have hardworking people, that we believe in a lot of things they’re doing, providing good paying jobs to our citizens, and we want to support their corporate goals,” Mr. Kemp said during a high-level panel on the future of electric-vehicle adoption. [The panel — Rolling Out EVs: A Marathon or a Sprint? — can be viewed on video here.]

Between the Rivian and Hyundai announcements, which promised 7,500 and 8,500 jobs, respectively, the state has landed about 40 suppliers, Mr. Kemp said. Many of them hail from Korea and are arriving in anticipation of the Hyundai Meta Plant coming on line in 2025. These facilities, plus battery and solar facilities northwest of Atlanta with price tags in the multiple billions of dollars, will grow demand for skilled labor. Kia also is spending $200 million to add an EV line at its West Point plant.

Unemployment in the state has held steady in Georgia for four months, and 2023 ended with a record 5.1 million Georgians employed. That means there is little slack in the system for job creators to absorb. It’s one reason Georgia’s population, like many Sunbelt states, is projected to continue to grow steadily in the coming years as job seekers arrive from other parts of the country.

The governor was the sole politician on a panel of industry titans, suggesting that Mr. Kemp’s initiative to make Georgia the “e-mobility capital of the world” is garnering international attention.

The panel featured Norsk Hydro CEO Hilde Merete Aasheim, Volvo Car Corp. CEO Jim Rowan and Zeng Yuqun, founder, chairman and CEO of perhaps the most influential battery company in the world: Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., a Chinese firm known by its acronym CATL. The latter is often a foil for Washington politicians warning of China’s plans to challenge the U.S. in key industries. Lawmakers have taken aim at Ford’s plans to license CATL’s technology at a $3.5 billion plant in Michigan.

Mr. Kemp didn’t take aim at China, but did mention that Georgia is looking to be part of the entire supply chain to ensure there is “not a dependency on one place in the world for rare-earth minerals and other things.”

The state has recruited large investments from recyclers at both ends of the chain, from Germany-based Aurubis, which will supply recycled copper that goes into cathodes from a new Augusta plant, to Ascend Elements, which will recycle end-of-life EV batteries at a Covington facility. Anovion, a graphite supplier, is spending $800 million on a plant in Bainbridge, aided by U.S. Department of Energy funding.

Mr. Kemp also played up the state’s growing clean-energy capacity, with a new nuclear reactor now online at Plant Vogtle and significant ongoing investment in solar farms. It’s a “great marketing tool” for prospects with specific climate goals.

“They want to produce with clean energy — we’re thankfully a state that’s doing a lot of that,” Mr. Kemp said.

That includes “people looking to produce heavy manufacturing with large loads, data centers for AI and everything that’s going on in that world right now. We’ve done as much as anyone else in the country, but we’re going to have to have more.”

Beyond the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he met with executives from Hyundai, Mr. Kemp was accompanied by leaders from the Georgia Department of Economic Development and met with the Minister-President of the Belgian region of Flanders Jan Jambon during his trip.

An email inquiry to the governor’s office about his broader European itinerary garnered no response by Friday.