Ioniq 5 plant opens in Singapore

AFTER several delays, Hyundai Motor Group (HMG) has officially opened its cutting-edge electric vehicle production and customer delivery facility in Singapore.

The seven-storey, 86,900 square-metre Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Centre Singapore (HMGICS) has the capacity to manufacture up to 30,000 electric vehicles each year.

It currently produces the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 5 robotaxi and is set to begin manufacturing the Ioniq 6 from next year but Australian-delivered Ioniq models will continue to be manufactured in South Korea.

Hyundai says the facility will also serve as a testbed for the development of future mobility solutions, including purpose-built vehicles, thanks to its advanced manufacturing capabilities. 

Key to this is a cell-based production system that does away with the traditional conveyer-belt approach.

Including a new “smart urban hub”, HMGICS features a highly automated and flexible production system the car-maker says provides “unprecedented ways for electric vehicle buyers to interact with their vehicles and the Hyundai brand”.

HMGICS is one of two Hyundai Motor Group “innovation pillars” said to lead the company’s future in the electrification era over the next 50 years.

Singapore was selected as the “ideal first home” for the first-of-its-kind facility and will take a “human-centric” approach to manufacturing, while also elevating the collaboration between people, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

“HMGICS is an open and connected urban innovation hub that encourages and embraces creativity and collaboration. It seeks to completely redefine the very concept of manufacturing,” said Hyundai Motor Group executive chair Euisun Chung at the HMGICS opening ceremony.

“We thought hard about how to meet the diverse needs of our many customers. By combining our manufacturing expertise and the latest cutting-edge technologies, the result is this Innovation Centre – a new paradigm of manufacturing.”

Approximately half of all tasks are completed by 200 robots, some of which are controlled by humans in a digital virtual space – or metaverse.

Robots perform assembly, inspection, and production facility organisation, while also managing 60 per cent of component process management, ordering, and transportation. The use of robot workers also helps the facility to remain more compact.

“The more compact nature of facilities such as HMGICS makes it easier to integrate them into local communities, particularly in urban areas with limited space,” explained HMGICS vice president and head of technology innovation group Alpesh Patel.

“With the help of robotics, AI, and the Internet of Things (IoT), we’ve built a human-centric manufacturing innovation system that can respond to changes in mobility, processes and products with agility and flexibility.

“These innovations are setting new benchmarks for efficiency and customisation.”

An order-from-home arrangement will allow customer vehicles produced at HMGICS to be tailored to specification without the need for a dealership interaction. A deposit and payment balance are handled securely online, while a test-drive may be arranged on the 618-metre rooftop track.

A handover zone at the facility is designed to make the moment customers take ownership of their new vehicle “as special and as memorable as possible”.

“Hyundai Motor Group is leading the mobility paradigm shift, but we are determined to deliver even greater levels of innovation,” said HMGICS senior vice president and CEO, Hong-Bum Jung.

“HMGICS will enable us to shape the future of mobility production, and indeed, the manufacturing industry, in collaboration with the culture of open innovation and forward-looking policies that Singapore is renowned for globally.”