Hyundai Motor Company is preparing for President Trump’s tariffs by investing billions in the United States, particularly in its new car factory in Georgia.

“We are looking forward to officially opening Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA) in Georgia (next week). Our localization strategy in the important U.S. market will help mitigate the impact of any potential policy change,” said Hyundai’s President and CEO Jose Muñoz, during the company’s shareholders’ meeting.

By April 2, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump intends to impose a 25% tariff on vehicles imported from other countries.

“Unless the tariff or non-tariff barriers are equalized, or the U.S. has higher tariffs, the tariffs will go into effect,” commented Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking about Trump’s tariffs in general–not just those imposed on imported vehicles.

Hyundai’s strategy to alleviate potential risks from Trump’s tariffs is to invest more in the United States so it can increase local production. The Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant American (HMGMA) is essential to the South Korean company’s plans.

“Hyundai Motor and its partners are investing $12.6 billion (18.4 trillion won) in an assembly plant and two battery joint ventures, enabling additional production capacity. The decision to make this investment was made during the first Trump administration,” said Muñoz.

In its HMGMA plant in Georgia, Hyundai aims to ramp up production of the 2025 IONIQ 5 EV. Hyundai’s Georgia plant kicked off IONIQ 5 production in October 2024. The Korean automaker is also preparing to produce the IONIQ 9 EV by the end of Q1 2025 at HMGMA.

HMGMA was supposed to focus only on fully electric vehicles initially. However, after EV sales dropped in 2024, Hyundai decided to produce hybrids at its Georgia plant. Hyundai’s CEO announced that preparations for hybrid production are underway at the facility.

Hyundai plans to offer an array of vehicles to customers worldwide, including internal combustion engine (ICE) cars, EVs, hybrids, and even hydrogen cars. Despite its plans, the legacy automaker still seems keen on an electrified future. It pledges to invest $90 billion over the next decade to develop 21 EVS and 14 hybrids. Hyundai aims to increase EV sales to over 2 million units worldwide by 2030.

China’s top automaker, BYD, is under investigation by the European Union for violating the EU’s electric vehicle (EV) subsidy rules.

According to the Financial Times, BYD received unfair subsidies from China which were used in its electric car plant in Hungary. Subsidies from the Chinese government are the main reason the EU Commission decided to implement additional tariffs on exported electric vehicles made in China and sold in Europe. The subsidies from China reportedly enabled car manufacturers to make China-made EVs cheaper in the EU market, affecting Europe’s local OEMs and competition in the domestic market.

The European Commission is in the early stages of a foreign subsidy probe into BYD’s EV plant in Hungary. If the Commission finds evidence that China provided subsidies to BYD’s EV plant in Hungary, it may force the Chinese automaker to sell some assets, reduce capacity, repay the subsidy, and pay a fine for non-compliance.

In October 2024, enough member states of the European Union voted to impose additional tariffs on China-made electric vehicles.

“Today, the European Commission’s proposal to impose definitive countervailing duties on imports of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) from China has obtained the necessary support from EU Member States for the adoption of tariffs. This represents another step towards the conclusion of the Commission’s anti-subsidy investigation,” announced the Commission after the EU member states’ vote. 

The European Union imposed a 17.0% levy on BYD specifically, on top of the EU’s standard car import duty of 10%. Geely received an additional duty of 18.8%, while SAIC received a tariff rate of 35.3%. Most automakers who build cars in China and export to Europe will have a duty of 35.3%. Only a few automakers, like Tesla and BYD, have an assigned duty rate.

Tesla invited the EU Commission to inspect its operations in Shanghai to determine a separate tariff rate for its China-made EVs exported to Europe. Tesla received a duty of 7.8% after the investigation.

Tesla owners are being doxxed by a controversial anti-DOGE website in what it called an act to “empower creative expressions of protest.”

Dogequest, a website that has been created with a clearly outlined use for intimidation against Tesla owners, posted the names, addresses, phone numbers, and other contact information of those who own vehicles made by the electric vehicle manufacturer.

It was spotted by 404 Media.

The site also claims to have the information of employees at the Department of Government Efficiency, as well as the addresses of Tesla dealerships and the locations of Tesla Superchargers. The latter two are public information.

However, the website is hoping to get Tesla owners to sell their vehicles in this evident intimidation tactic. However, the information on the website, while it was seen, was not verified to prove that it contained the information of real-world Tesla owners. The site was not accessible by Teslarati at the time of publication.

The creation of a site like Dogequest is just another level that anti-Elon Musk activists are taking to attempt to destroy a company like Tesla as its CEO works with the Trump Administration to eliminate excessive government spending through the work of DOGE.

It is also the latest attack on Tesla owners, who have seen their vehicles vandalized, damaged, and even destroyed by those who disagree with the actions of Musk.

Tesla as a company has also seen several acts of retaliation against it, as everything from the arson of its showrooms and vehicles to it being kicked from the popular Vancouver Auto Show have come as a result of the recent backlash against the company.

Moving forward, there are still questions surrounding how these attacks will be combatted. The Trump Administration has indicated that acts of vandalism against Tesla would be considered a federal crime, but the tricky part of locating the culprits has proven to be extremely difficult. Only a handful have been found and held accountable.