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Where Was My Hyundai Built? Read It From the VIN

Where Was My Hyundai Built? Read It From the VIN

You have a Hyundai VIN and you want to know where the car came from. Maybe you are buying it used, ordering a part, or filling in a form that asks for the country of manufacture. The VIN has the answer, but a decoder result for a Hyundai can leave you with more questions: the plant city is blank, or the maker has a different name than you expected.

This page gives you the answer first, then the fixes for the confusing parts. Every result below comes from the NHTSA vPIC decoder, which we queried on 6 November 2026.

The Answer in One Line

Look at the first character of the VIN:

  • K means the car was built in South Korea.
  • 5 means it was built in the United States, at Hyundai’s Alabama plant.

That is enough for most forms. The plant letter, in position 11, adds detail.

Check Yours in Four Steps

  1. Find the VIN. It is usually on the dashboard by the windshield and on the driver’s door jamb. If you cannot spot it, see where to find your VIN.
  2. Read character 1. K is Korea, 5 is Alabama.
  3. Read character 11, the plant letter. In our samples, A was the Asan plant and U the Ulsan plant, both in South Korea. Alabama cars carried H.
  4. Confirm with a decoder. Paste the VIN into the VIN decoder. The plant line should agree with what you read. If it does not, check the VIN again for a letter O where a zero belongs, or an I where a one belongs.

When the Result Looks Wrong

These are the snags we found in the real data, and what each one means.

What you see What it means What to do
The plant city is blank The car was built in Alabama. NHTSA gives the state for those cars and no city. Read the plant state. The first character 5 confirms it.
The maker is “Hyundai-Kia America Technical Center” NHTSA’s company name follows the code the VIN starts with. The Alabama Elantra (5NP) shows this name, while the Alabama Santa Fe (5NM) shows “Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama”. Both list Alabama as the plant state. Ignore the company name. The plant state is what tells you where it was built.
The plant says “UL-SAN” In our Ioniq 5 sample NHTSA spells the Ulsan plant with a hyphen. It is Ulsan, South Korea.
Two Santa Fes start differently NHTSA lists two groups of plain Santa Fes: Korean-built with KM8S, and Alabama-built with 5NMS. Check the model year (next section).
The VIN could be a Hyundai or a Genesis The codes KMH and 5NM are listed for both brands. Decode the full VIN and read the make.
The decoder adds a note about position 8 For the 2018 Korean Santa Fe VINs we tried, NHTSA says position 8 is unused. That is a gap in NHTSA’s data, not a bad VIN.

Why Santa Fe VINs Start Differently

The name Santa Fe covers cars built in two countries. NHTSA’s patterns show:

Name VIN starts Years Built
Santa Fe KM8S 2015 to 2018 Ulsan, South Korea
Santa Fe Sport 5NMZ 2017 and 2018 Alabama, United States
Santa Fe 5NMS 2019 and 2020 Alabama, United States

So a Santa Fe with a KM8 VIN is the older Korean-built one, and a 2019 or 2020 Santa Fe starting 5NM is American-built. For 2017 and 2018, NHTSA lists both a Santa Fe and a Santa Fe Sport, and they start in different countries.

The Elantra splits too. In our 2016 samples, the Korean one was classed as a hatchback and the Alabama one as a sedan.

Proof: Seven Hyundai VINs, Decoded

We built seven sample VINs from patterns NHTSA already holds, with placeholder serials (123456) and calculated check digits, so they are samples and not real cars. All seven decoded with NHTSA error code 0, which means no problems found.

Sample VIN NHTSA says Body Plant
KMHD25HE8GA123456 2016 Elantra Hatchback Asan, South Korea
5NPDH4HE0GH123456 2016 Elantra Sedan Alabama, United States
KM8SMDEA1HU123456 2017 Santa Fe SUV Ulsan, South Korea
5NMZT3AA5HH123456 2017 Santa Fe Sport SUV Alabama, United States
5NMS33AA4KH123456 2019 Santa Fe SUV Alabama, United States
KM8K22AA2KU123456 2019 Kona SUV Ulsan, South Korea
KM8KM4DB0PU123456 2023 Ioniq 5 SUV UL-SAN, South Korea

Paste any of them into the decoder to see the same answer.

Hyundai’s Codes, as NHTSA Lists Them

The first three characters tell you the maker’s code and the kind of vehicle. For Hyundai, NHTSA lists 15 codes, including trailer codes and codes for newer facilities. These are the main Korean and Alabama ones:

First three Company name in NHTSA Country Vehicle type Brands
KMH Hyundai Motor Co South Korea Passenger car Hyundai, Genesis
KM8 Hyundai Motor Co South Korea SUV or MPV Hyundai
KMT Hyundai Motor Co South Korea Passenger car Genesis
KMF Hyundai Motor Co South Korea Truck Hyundai
5NP Hyundai-Kia America Technical Center Inc (HATCI) United States Passenger car Hyundai
5NM Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama LLC (HMMA) United States SUV or MPV Hyundai, Genesis
5NT Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama LLC (HMMA) United States Truck Hyundai

Questions People Ask

Can the VIN tell me the exact factory? For Korean cars, NHTSA names the city when the VIN decodes, such as Asan or Ulsan. For Alabama cars it names only the state.

What if the VIN will not decode at all? Count the characters, since a VIN has 17, and check for the letters I, O and Q, which are never used. Our decoder page explains what to do when no record is found.

Do these results apply to every model year? We checked samples from 2016 to 2023. For any other year, decode the full VIN and read the plant line.

Keep Reading

Free VIN tools: VIN Generator · VIN Decoder · VIN Generator by Make and Model · VIN Validator

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