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The electric cars will be manufactured in a highly automated factory in Singapore, marking the return of car manufacturing here and incorporating one-of-a-kind features.
At a virtual inauguration ceremony for the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center in Jurong yesterday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong noted that the South Korean automaker’s investment was a nod to Singapore’s strengths.
“I am happy that Hyundai has chosen Singapore to locate its newest facility. It is an investment of almost $ 400 million and can produce up to 30,000 vehicles per year by 2025, within five years,” said PM Lee.
The center, which will be completed by the end of 2022, will serve as an open innovation laboratory for research and development of mobility concepts, which observers estimate will include autonomous vehicles and new forms of carpooling.
Located on a 44,000-square-meter parcel, larger than five football fields, in the Jurong Innovation District, and with a built area of about 90,000 square meters, the facility will be futuristic.
It will have a landing pad for passenger drones, which Hyundai is also developing, and will use renewable energy sources such as solar and hydrogen.
When ready, the facility will have a small-scale electric car assembly line that is expected to produce up to 30,000 vehicles a year.
Customers will be able to purchase and customize their vehicles on their phones. Once an order is confirmed, production will begin.
Customers can see their cars being assembled at the center.
The facility will be a “vivid demonstration” that Singapore has what it takes to dream big and reinvent itself, Prime Minister Lee said. “We didn’t think Singapore would ever make cars again. But it is in Singapore that we have made the impossible possible.”
He said Singapore had a car assembly industry since the 1940s, but abandoned it in 1980 when commercial competitiveness began to favor high-volume plants.
But 40 years later, with the resurgence of electric vehicles, the game has changed again with growing interest in cleaner, smarter vehicles and cities facing pressure to move people in an environmentally sustainable way.
Automotive activities are viable again in Singapore, he said. “Electric vehicles have a different supply chain, fewer mechanical parts and more electronic components, which favors Singapore’s strengths.”
That’s why global companies that produce automotive electronics like Delphi and Infineon have been in Singapore for some time, he added.
Hopefully this will open up new areas of growth for the economy, he said, and create exciting jobs like industrial internet of things engineers, data scientists and digital supply chain strategists.
Along with South Korean Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy Sung Yun-mo and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Vice President Chung Eui-sun at the event, Lee added that the facility could pave the way for more South Korean companies invest here. partner with local businesses and collaborate with universities and research institutions.
Hyundai said the facility will employ several advanced manufacturing and logistics systems, including artificial intelligence, the internet of things and robotics.
Hyundai will also test battery-as-a-service, where consumers buy an electric car without its battery, which can account for half its cost, and then rent the cells from Hyundai. This could dramatically reduce the cost of an electric vehicle.
The company did not disclose the number of people the facility will employ, saying it “will be determined later … as the project evolves.” Earlier, a spokesperson said it would create “hundreds of jobs.”
Hyundai’s move comes after an offer from British appliance maker Dyson to make electric cars in Singapore. Dyson, however, canceled the company.
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