Hyundai says Singapore Innovation Centre a cornerstone for new gen manufacturing

• Singapore to lead development of next generation battery EVs production methods
• Smart logistics, AI-assisted manufacturing to be tested in Singapore, deployed worldwide
• Hyundai and Genesis (excluding Kia) aiming for 7 percent market share in BEVs, with 17 models, by 2030 

Hyundai Motor Company announced yesterday that it aims 1.87 million battery EVs by 2030, which is significantly higher than its previous target of 560,000 units by 2025, to attain 7 market share in the global BEV market.

Supporting this ambition are 17 upcoming BEV models – 11 from Hyundai, 6 from Genesis. Of the 17 models, 6 are SUVs, 3 sedans, and 1 light commercial vehicle.

Hyundai will launch two new models to wear the Ioniq brand – Ioniq 6 and Ioniq 7 – by 2024. Currently, the Ioniq brand is represented only the Ioniq 5, a compact fully electric SUV that will also be launched in Malaysia later this month.

Also read: Hyundai Ioniq 5 launching in Malaysia this month, here's a sneak peek

But sales targets cannot be realized unless there is sufficient manufacturing capacity, and with EVs, it’s a little more complicated because the manufacturing processes are very different from regular combustion engine cars.

To that end, Hyundai is looking to Singapore. Hyundai CEO Chang Jaehoon describes the Hyundai Motor Global Innovation Center Singapore (HMGICS) in Jurong as the company’s “cornerstone for innovation in the company’s mobility value chain.”

Built with an investment of SGD 400 million (RM 1.23 billion), HMGICS is scheduled to be completed in November 2022. It will be tasked with building a new generation of human-centered manufacturing innovation platform.

HMGICS is not a manufacturing plant in a conventional sense, but a R&D hub for value chain innovation and future mobility provision. The latter means that its projects are not limited to just cars, but will also include things like driverless buses, commuter pods, even urban air mobility vehicles (air taxis).

However unlike a typical R&D hub, the Singapore facility will still do some low volume manufacturing. Think of it as a test bed for the factory of the future.

No details were mentioned but words like “flexible production system, advanced level automation and digital twin technology” were used to describe the company’s vision for its next generation manufacturing plant.

The methods deployed in HMGICS will be rolled out to other Hyundai plants worldwide.

CEO Chang also said Hyundai is working towards securing 170 GWh of battery supply by 2030 (including Genesis brand), a crucial move to ease the current shortage of its BEV models, especially for the Ioniq 5.