Factory to build up to 30,000 electric vehicles a year when completed by end-2022
By Christopher Tan, Senior Transport Correspondent, The Straits Times, 14 Oct 2020
Electric cars will be built at a highly automated factory in Singapore, marking the return of automobile manufacturing here and incorporating first-of-its-kind features.
At a virtual groundbreaking ceremony of the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Centre in Jurong yesterday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong noted that the investment by the South Korean carmaker was a nod to Singapore's strengths.
"I am happy that Hyundai has chosen Singapore to locate your newest facility. It is an investment of almost $400 million, and may produce up to 30,000 vehicles per year by 2025, five years from now," said PM Lee.
The centre, to be completed by end-2022, will serve as an open innovation lab for research and development into mobility concepts, which observers reckon will include autonomous vehicles and new forms of ride-sharing.
Sitting on a 44,000 sq m plot - larger than five football fields - in the Jurong Innovation District, and with a built-up area of some 90,000 sq m, the facility will be futuristic.
It will have a landing pad for passenger drones - which Hyundai is also developing - and employ renewable energy sources such as solar and hydrogen.
When ready, the facility will have a small-scale electric car assembly line which is expected to produce up to 30,000 vehicles a year.
Customers will be able to purchase and customise their vehicles on their phones. Once an order is confirmed, production will begin.
Customers can then watch their cars being assembled at the centre.
The facility will be a "vivid demonstration" that Singapore has what it takes to dream big and reinvent itself, said PM Lee. "We did not think that Singapore would one day be manufacturing cars again. But Singapore is where we have made the impossible, possible."
He said Singapore had a car assembly industry from as early as the 1940s, but abandoned it in 1980 when commercial competitiveness began to favour high-volume plants.
But 40 years on, with the revival of electric vehicles, the game has changed again with growing interest in cleaner, smarter vehicles and cities facing pressure to move people around in an environmentally sustainable manner.
Automotive activities are becoming viable in Singapore again, he said. "Electric vehicles have a different supply chain, fewer mechanical parts and more electronics, which plays to Singapore's strengths."
That is why global companies producing automotive electronics like Delphi and Infineon have been in Singapore for some time, he added.
This will hopefully open up new growth areas for the economy, he said, and create exciting jobs such as Industrial Internet of Things engineers, data scientists and digital supply chain strategists.
Joined virtually by South Korean Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Sung Yun-mo and Hyundai Motor Group executive vice-chairman Chung Eui-sun at the event, Mr Lee added that the facility could pave the way for more South Korean companies to invest here, partner with local businesses and collaborate with universities and research institutions.
Hyundai said the facility will employ various advanced manufacturing and logistical systems, including artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and robotics.
Hyundai will also trial battery-as-a-service, where consumers buy an electric car without its battery - which can account for half its cost - and then lease the cells from Hyundai. This could reduce the cost of an electric vehicle dramatically.
The company would not reveal the number of people the facility will employ, saying it "will be determined later... as the project evolves". Earlier, a spokesman said it would create "hundreds of jobs".
Hyundai's move comes after a bid by British home appliance maker Dyson to make electric cars in Singapore. Dyson, however, pulled the plug on the venture.
Singapore-made Hyundai electric cars for local market initially
Customers will be able to purchase and customise vehicles on phone - production starts once an order is confirmed
By Christopher Tan, Senior Transport Correspondent, The Straits Times, 14 Oct 2020
Hyundai electric cars made in Singapore will be for the local market initially, with export plans further down the road.
A Hyundai spokesman said: "Products built at the innovation centre will first be offered to customers in Singapore. Hyundai Motor Group will review expansion plans to other markets at a later stage."
With an annual capacity of up to 30,000 cars, observers reckon the facility will have to export, as the Singapore market is unlikely to be able to absorb all the cars.
Mr Teo Hock Seng, executive chairman of Hyundai agent Komoco Holdings, is targeting to sell 5,000 to 6,000 of the electric cars a year.
The figures are higher than Komoco's average annual sales volume since it started here 34 years ago.
The Straits Times understands that models to be assembled here may include the Ioniq 5, a mid-sized electric crossover based on the Hyundai Concept 45 to be launched in South Korea next year, and the yet-to-be-announced Ioniq 3 electric compact crossover.
Production of the Ioniq 5 will start by the end of 2022, while the Ioniq 3 is expected to be produced by 2025.
Motorists hoping for the Singapore-made cars to be significantly cheaper than imported ones may be disappointed.
Industry watchers said the Hyundai plant is an assembly facility.
As such, it would have to import practically all the parts and components which go into making the cars. All vehicular taxes will continue to apply.
One possible advantage, however, is Hyundai's battery-as-a-service business model.
The South Korean company said it will explore this concept, which allows consumers to buy a battery-less electric car, and then lease the cells from Hyundai.
And since the battery accounts for half or more of an electric car's cost, this concept may reduce the purchase cost substantially.
Meanwhile, Hyundai said customers will be able to purchase and customise their vehicles on their phones. Once an order is confirmed, production will begin.
Hyundai is partnering Nanyang Technological University to, among other things, find ways to facilitate "smart customising" functions which would allow customers to tailor-make their cars.
Hyundai said: "Once the car is ready for delivery, it will be transferred to a 620m Sky Track where the customer can test-drive the vehicle."
The Sky Track will sit atop the seven-storey facility.
Hyundai said it will employ various advanced manufacturing and logistical systems, including artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and robotics. These will result in a "highly automated... safe and efficient work environment".
* Hyundai opens high-tech Singapore electric car factory on 21 November 2023
Hyundai Singapore plant rolling out robotaxis for US market
By Christopher Tan, Senior Transport Correspondent, The Straits Times, 21 Nov 2023
The newly opened Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Centre Singapore (HMGICS) in Jurong Innovation District – Singapore’s first car assembly plant in four decades – is not just assembling Hyundai Ioniq 5 cars.
It is also equipping these electric crossovers with driverless technology to be used as so-called robotaxis in United States cities, starting with Las Vegas.
Mr Alpesh Patel, HMGICS’ vice-president and head of its technology innovation group, said the plant will produce 30 robotaxis in 2023 and 150 in 2024. Made in collaboration with automotive tech firm Aptiv, each one is equipped with more than 30 sensors, including Lidar (light detection and ranging), radar and cameras.
They have Level 4 autonomy, which means they can be driven hands-off and eyes-off for extended periods in various locations and situations. But for safety, a driver will still be on board for the taxi service in Las Vegas.
The $400 million assembly facility in Bulim Avenue started operations in early 2023, and was officially opened by Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Nov 21.
DPM Wong said in his speech at the opening ceremony that HMGICS should “make full use of Singapore’s research capabilities and talents” to develop and pilot more novel solutions here.
“Together, we hope that we can push boundaries, create new value and create many more exciting and cutting-edge jobs for Singapore, and play a role in developing new vehicles and new solutions for the future.”
By the end of 2023, the highly automated facility would have assembled about 300 Ioniq 5 electric cars for Singapore customers, from parts shipped here from South Korea and Indonesia.
The facility, which has a planned capacity of 30,000 vehicles per year for local and overseas buyers, is likely to roll out more cars in 2024 as the certificate of entitlement supply in Singapore grows.
Mr Patel, a former aerodynamicist with Ferrari and previously a partner with consulting group McKinsey, said the Singapore plant will add the Ioniq 6 electric saloon to its highly automated assembly “within the next few months”, followed by “two or three other models”.
Besides cars, the plant can also assemble drones and two-wheelers.
The seven-storey 86,900 sq m facility boasts a flexible cell-based production system that breaks away from traditional conveyor-belt manufacturing. This modular system allows the plant to assemble several products at once, without the rigidity associated with a production line.
The facility acts as a test-bed for automating “general assembly” – a term used to describe the final part assembly where parts such as seats, the dashboard, air-conditioning, floor and roof linings are installed. This segment is currently largely manual, with up to 90 per cent of work done by people.
At HMGICS, about 50 per cent of work is done by 200 or so robots, and the percentage is expected to rise significantly with the assembly of so-called purpose-built vehicles – boxy, functional electric vehicles designed to be assembled with minimum human labour.
On its expansive production floor on the third level, there are only 30 technicians doing assembly work and 20 engineers doing jobs such as diagnostics, programming and maintenance. In total, the complex has 280 employees.
Each worker can be responsible for more than 50 tasks, compared with two or three in a traditional production line, according to Mr Patel.
Both robots and human workers are constantly monitored for efficiency and quality, with a team in an artificial intelligence-powered nerve centre overlooking the assembly area.
Robot “dogs” from Boston Dynamics – a US robot maker acquired by Hyundai in 2020 – patrol the production floor, peering into nooks and crannies looking for flaws.
DPM Wong said: “Workers don’t have to worry. There will still be enough jobs around for them, but we will reskill, upskill and make sure that they can take on higher-value jobs. So, it’s not about robots taking over humans, but humans and robots working together to create more value.”
“Ultimately, we want Singapore to always be a place where people can come together to imagine new possibilities,” he added.
Hyundai has not said when the plant’s production will reach its capacity of 30,000 a year. “Theoretically, we could do it tomorrow,” Mr Patel said, adding that the actual timing hinges mainly on demand.
Completed cars are taken to a 620m rooftop test track – the first of its kind in Asia. Complete with a 33-degree sloping section, it is designed to accommodate vehicles travelling at up to 83kmh. Cars are tested for a multitude of parameters, including noise, harshness and vibration.
Mr Patel said Hyundai Motor Group (which includes Kia) is looking to transplant this highly automated, labour-light concept tested in Singapore to its 45 manufacturing and assembly plants around the world.
But the HMGICS facility is more than a car assembly plant.
On two floors, vegetables such as ice plant and kale are grown in see-through fully automated hydroponic gardens where robots do everything from planting seeds to harvesting.
The vertical farms can produce 600 heads of vegetables a day, and Hyundai says this effort is in line with Singapore’s goal of becoming more self-sufficient in food supply.
The complex caters to car buyers and car enthusiasts, too. Like at similar showcases built by Volkswagen and Toyota, visitors can view cars being built, experience a chauffeured ride around the rooftop track, and if they buy a car, take delivery of it in an audio-visual hall where their vehicle is wheeled out by robotic trolleys.
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