Hyundai Motor chief reviews EV strategy in Indonesia

Chung Euisun visits joint battery cell plant with LG in Kawarang New Industry City for 1st time

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun (center) looks around Hyundai LG Indonesia Green Power, a joint battery cell plant with LG Energy Solution, in Kawarang New Industry City, Indonesia, Thursday. (Hyundai Motor Group)

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun visited the automaker’s joint battery cell plant with LG Energy Solution in Indonesia to discuss its electrification strategy in the growing electric vehicle market, the company said Friday.

According to Hyundai Motor, Chung looked around Hyundai LG Indonesia Green Power (HLI Green Power) in Kawarang New Industry City in the Indonesian province of West Java before attending the business roundtable between South Korea and Indonesia on Thursday. He previously took part in the groundbreaking ceremony for the battery cell manufacturing site virutally due to COVID-19 restraints in September 2021. Chung's Thursday visit marked his first in-person visit to the joint plant.

Hyundai Motor said Chung closely reviewed each operation process for making battery cells to ensure that high quality products can be manufactured. He also discussed the production and sales strategy of EVs and ways to establish an electrification ecosystem in Indonesia with Hyundai Motor employees at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations headquarters.

The construction of the HLI Green Power was completed in June this year. The plant is expected to begin mass production in 2024. The battery cells will add aluminum that can increase output and decrease chemical instability to the NCM lithium-ion battery. They will be loaded on not only Hyundai Motor Company’s EVs produced at the Indonesian manufacturing plant, but also future EVs of Hyundai Motor Company and its sister affiliate Kia.

Once the joint plant begins production, Hyundai Motor will become the only automaker in the region to have set up a complete chain of EVs with local battery cell and EV production.

Hyundai Motor said it aims to become a top EV brand in the ASEAN region by gaining a foothold in Indonesia, which has the fourth-largest population and the most nickel reserves in the world. Under an ASEAN free trade agreement, vehicles produced at the Indonesian plant can be exported to ASEAN countries without tariffs if they are assembled with 40 percent or more local parts.

To help accelerate Indonesia's EV transformation, Hyundai Motor on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding with Lippo Malls Indonesia, the biggest retailer in the country, to install EV charging stations in Lippo Malls’ 52 large shopping malls nationwide.

Hyundai Motor announced earlier this week that it became the top EV seller in Indonesia by taking a 56.5 percent market share as of July. The Ioniq 5, which began production at Hyundai Motor’s Indonesia plant in March 2022, took up most of the sales.

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun (center) looks around Hyundai LG Indonesia Green Power, a joint battery cell plant with LG Energy Solution, in Kawarang New Industry City in Indonesida, Thursday. (Hyundai Motor Group)

By Kan Hyeong-woo(hwkan@heraldcorp.com)