International. On July 3, Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution inaugurated the first electric vehicle battery cell production plant in Indonesia with an annual capacity of 10 gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery cells.
The plant is part of a commitment by Hyundai Motor and LGES to invest up to $9.8 billion in battery cell production for electric vehicles. The Indonesian government said Southeast Asia's largest economy is developing an electric vehicle supply chain to benefit from nickel and copper resources.
"This nation's mineral resources, such as iron and nickel, are important components in the batteries that will power millions of electric vehicles around the world," Hyundai Motor Group Chief Executive Euisun Chung said at the factory's opening ceremony.
The plant is integrated with Hyundai's car factory, where the company will begin producing 50,000 units a year of the Kona Electric, an SUV that would use Indonesian-made batteries.
Hyundai and LGES are also preparing to start development of the second phase of the battery plant, which involves an investment of $2 billion to add 20 GWh of capacity to the plant.
The companies announced in 2021 that they would invest $1.1 billion in the battery cell plant in West Java province. It has enough annual capacity to produce batteries that can power more than 150,000 battery-powered electric vehicles.
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said the plant will cement itself as Indonesia's key in the global electric vehicle supply chain by establishing a domestic processing industry.
"This is the first and largest battery cell plant for electric vehicles in Southeast Asia, and I am sure that we will be able to win this competition with other countries because nickel, bauxite and copper are here," Jokowi said at the same event.
Indonesia, the world's leading nickel producer, banned crude nickel exports in 2020 to encourage investment in domestic processing of the metal.
Indonesian Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia and South Korean Commerce Minister Cheong Inkyo also met to discuss cooperation on electric vehicles, petrochemicals and clean energy technologies such as carbon dioxide capture and storage, South Korea's Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
