Hyundai Motor Co. Ltd is planning to start producing electric cars in Indonesia. There will be an investment of $880 million in the country. The Deputy Minister of Indonesia provides this information of Hyundai. Hyundai’s set up its first car factory in Southeast Asia. This is to cut the reliability of them on China. Where there is intense competition from diplomatic tensions between Seoul and Beijing.

Hyundai is the world 5 No. automaker. Anyway, Hyundai affiliate Kia Motors. However, they both were planning to build a factory in Indonesia with a capacity of about 250,000 units including electric cars. Deputy Minister Harjanto of Indonesia provide this information.

Nickel Laterite Ore

Indonesia has lots of nickel laterite ore. Which is a vital and essential ingredient for the manufacturing of Lithium-ion batteries. Those batteries provide power to electric vehicles. The Minister told they were planning to export 53% of the cars manufactured in Indonesia plant. Those export will be to Southeast Asia and Australia while remaining will be for the domestic users.

Toyota And Honda

Earlier this year, Hyundai said South Korean union officials about their plans to build a factory in Indonesia. The biggest challenge for Hyundai is building a sales network. Also, the Vice-president Lee Bo-Sung said: “The Asian market is difficult to penetrate as they were conquered by the Japanese rivals Toyota and Honda”.

Sales

In Indonesia, Only 1,372 vehicles of Hyundai were sold between January to October while Toyota sold 4,63,565 vehicles in the same period as per the data from LMC Automotive. However, Hyundai is not having a car factory in Southeast Asia. Although, there is an assembly plant in Vietnam. Last month, Hyundai announced a $250 million investment in Grab and plan to offer an electric vehicle in Southeast Asia.