NSW lost $1B Hyundai battery plant after botching a January 2024 pitch
Text messages show Hyundai's CEO sought a meeting with NSW or federal leaders in early 2024 to discuss $1B investment.
In January 2024, a former NSW trade commissioner sent urgent texts to the Premier's chief of staff. Newman pushed for a high-level meeting with Hyundai Motor Group's global chief Euisun Chung.
Newman warned that Hyundai wanted to invest more than $1B in NSW, including a car plant, and that seniority was essential. Hyundai had just invested $7B in a US battery factory.
The meeting fell through and was bungled, according to texts revealed this week. Newman, who left the trade role in 2024, is now One Nation's NSW leader.
- $1 billion
- Proposed investment
- $7 billion
- Prior US investment
- January 17, 2024
- Text date
- Mike Newman
- Trade commissioner
Why it mattersA single missed meeting may have cost Australia thousands of jobs and billions in manufacturing investment when the nation is desperately short of advanced industrial capacity.
AustraliaAustralia missed a major opportunity to build EV battery plants and manufacturing jobs. Hyundai invested in Indonesia instead, strengthening that region's industrial power.
