South Korean battery maker SK Innovation Co. announced it would hire more than 2,600 workers by 2024 at its first U.S.-based electric vehicle battery plants planned in northeast Georgia.

It plans to initially hire 1,000 skilled local workers by the end of 2021 to deploy them in one of its two battery plants in Commerce, a city 70 miles, or 113 kilometers northeast of Atlanta, Georgia, the company said.

About 150 workers would be hired by the year-end and another 900 next year.

The two plants under construction, which are expected to cost $2.6 billion, would be the biggest economic development projects in Georgia history, according to SK Innovation.

SK Innovation’s U.S. subsidiary SK Battery America previously hired 60 American workers including production directors and engineers to oversee the initial operation of the two plants and training of the new staff.

The company in July signed an agreement with Georgia’s Quick Start program and Lanier Technical College to provide the specialized training for the new hires, which would include production operators and battery cell technicians, as part of its plan to create more than 2,600 jobs in the U.S.

By Won Ho-sup and Kim Hyo-jin

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