[4doorGL]

Hyundai Motor president Kim Dong-jin’s recent visit to the U.S. has rumormongers speculating on an American assembly plant for the carmaker once more. Korea’s Maeil Business Newspaper reports the company is looking closely at Alabama — home of the Mercedes-Benz M-Class plant and a new plant for Honda sport-utes — as its leading candidate for a new North American factory. The newspaper says Hyundai will begin construction on a $1 billion facility next year. A specific site was not mentioned in the report; Mercedes’ plant sits next to I-59 between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, while Honda’s factory is located near Talladega, on I-20 between Birmingham and Atlanta.

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