Hyundai Motor chief offers to back Indonesia's EV, battery, hydrogen infrastructure

[Photo by Yonhap]

Hyundai Motor Group readying to churn out electric vehicles in Indonesia will support the country migrate faster to green vehicles through establishment of charging and battery recycling infrastructure and adopt fuel cell on top of batteries.

“Thanks to full support from the Indonesian government, we are ready to mass-produce EVs next year,” said group chairman Chung Euisun at Indonesia’s EV roadmap presentation event Jakarta International Expo on Monday, joined by Indonesian President Joko Widodo and other senior government officials.

“Hyundai Motor Group will actively cooperate (with the Indonesian government) on EV production, development of charging stations and recycling of used-up batteries in Indonesia,” he added.

The Korean auto conglomerate is scheduled to complete its first Southeast Asian finished car plant in Bekasi, Indonesia, the end of this year to roll out combustion engine powered cars and EVs.

It is separately building a 10-gigawatt-hour battery manufacturing facility in a $1.1 billion joint-venture with LG Energy Solution in Karawang New Industry City near Bekasi.

[Photo by Yonhap]

Chung proposed Indonesia to adopt hydrogen fuel through the group’s knowhow.

Hyundai Motor is willing to join state-led new capital city project as well as other future projects, he emphasized.

Once the Bekasi plant becomes fully operational, Hyundai Motor plans to release SU2 id compact sport utility vehicle and KS compact multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) to compete with Japanese carmakers dominating the local market with two new models.

Image of Hyundai Creta 2022

The SU2 id, the Indonesia market-tailored version of Hyundai Creta subcompact crossover SUV currently popular in India, Russia and Brazil, will be the first model to be shipped out of Hyundai’s first Southeast Asian finished car plant. Hyundai Creta last year sold 96,989 units in India, No. 1 best-selling model in the Indian subcompact SUV segment. Hyundai Motor pins high hope on the KS in Indonesia, where 70 percent of all cars sold are MPVs. Both the two new releases are powered by conventional combustion engines.

The Indonesia auto market is set to enjoy a boom as less than 10 percent of its entire 276 million population has own cars. It is the most populous country in Southeast Asia.

Separately, Hyundai Motor Group will supply Genesis’ first all-electric vehicle model Electrified G80 as the official VIP car for the 17th G20 Summit, which will be held in Bali, Indonesia in the fourth quarter of next year.

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