Hyundai Motor Group is to invest S$400 million (US$294 million) in a new innovation center in Singapore that Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) said might produce up to 30,000 vehicles a year by 2025.
“Automotive activities are becoming viable in Singapore once again,” Lee said in a speech yesterday to mark the virtual groundbreaking ceremony for the center in the city-state’s west.
Electric vehicles (EVs) “have a different supply chain, fewer mechanical parts and more electronics, which plays to Singapore’s strengths,” he said.
Photo: Reuters
The seven-story building, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2022, is where Hyundai would work on developing artificial intelligence (AI), big data and other technologies to enhance its manufacturing processes, fine-tuning the “brains” behind the smarter and more environmentally friendly vehicles of tomorrow.
The center would also have a 620m driving track near its roof so that customers can test drive vehicles.
Hyundai would “instill human-centered values” in all stages of a vehicle’s life, from ordering and production to the test drive and service, Hyundai Motor executive vice chairman Euisun Chung said at the event.
The company is separately developing flying cars, planning a full lineup of aerial vehicles that it envisages zigzagging city skies within a decade.
The innovation center would also house a small-scale electric-vehicle production facility to test processes using AI and autonomous driving.
One of the company’s EVs, the Kona, has been recalled in South Korea following multiple reports of battery fires.
“We hope this will open up new growth areas for our economy, and create exciting jobs for Singaporeans, for example industrial Internet of Things engineers, data scientists, cobot technicians and digital supply chain strategists,” Lee said.
Lee also said the center marked “an important milestone in the economic relationship between Singapore and South Korea,” paving the way for more South Korean firms to invest in the city-state and partner with local suppliers.
Singapore has not had an auto manufacturing plant since Ford Motor Co closed its factory several decades ago, effectively ending automobile production on the island.
In October last year, vacuum cleaner maker Dyson Ltd abandoned a US$2.5 billion plan to build electric vehicles in the city-state because it could not find a way of making the project commercially viable.
Tesla Inc, the world’s biggest maker of EVs, has plans to export China-built Model 3 cars to Singapore, and other places in Asia and Europe from its factory in Shanghai, people familiar with the matter said last month.
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