The Wall Street Journal says the South Korean automaker will spend $270 million to build the new plant, which will employ about 520 workers. Production will begin in September 2008 and the engines assembled in the plant will go into vehicles produced at the Hyundai plant in Montgomery as well as those built at the rising Kia plant in nearby West Point, Ga.

Hyundai builds the Santa Fe and Sonata in Alabama . Kia's product plans for the Georgia plant haven't been announced.

Hyundai also confirmed it would begin making hybrid cars in 2009, and hopes to make 300,000 of them a year by 2015. Kia, Hyundai's sister brand, recently showed its Rio Hybrid at the Geneva auto show.

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