The factory, in west Singapore, will make the new sub-brand Ioniq EVs starting with the Ioniq 5 SUV which is expected to be available from late 2022.
Hyundai has stated it wants 10 per cent of the EV market and aims to sell one million Ioniq models a year from 2025. It has announced three Ioniq models, the 5, sedan 6 and large SUV 7, to be made from early 2021 through to 2023.
Construction of the 28,000 square-metre factory on a 44,000 square-metre site will go ahead in October after being delayed because of the pandemic.
The factory is within the Jurong Innovation District that is planned as a technology and manufacturing hub for South-East Asia.
Hyundai will incorporate a Hyundai Mobility Global Innovation Centre within the factory site. The Centre, supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board, will develop and test technology across all areas of the automotive supply chain.
Singapore will be the 11th country in which Hyundai has manufacturing facilities and the only dedicated EV plant.
It said it will initially make the Ioniq 5 with about 20 per cent planned for Singapore sales and the remainder for South-East Asian markets.
Singapore, a world shipping crossroads, could become a regional hub for right-hand drive markets given that Singapore itself, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Australia and New Zealand drive on the left side of the road.
Key right-hand drive markets that are a little further afield are India, Pakistan, Japan and most of the south of the African continent; with the UK furthest away.
Hyundai’s news follows Dyson Ltd abandoning its planned $US2.5 billion vision to build its proposed EV in Singapore. Dyson pulled the plug on the plan after failing to make it commercially viable.
The only other car-maker with a Singapore factory was Ford Motor Company which opened in 1941 and closed in 1980.
By Neil Dowling
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