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Hyundai Motor Group CEO Chung Eui-sun speaks at an event marking the completion of its EV ecosystem with Indonesia on July 3, 2024. (courtesy of Hyundai Motor)

The Hyundai Motor Group is accelerating efforts to break into the Southeast Asian market with Indonesia as a bridgehead. It has set up an all-inclusive system for building automobiles, from batteries to vehicle assembly, in Indonesia, which has the biggest automobile market of any member country of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The Hyundai Motor Group announced Wednesday that it held a ceremony to mark the completion of its electric vehicle ecosystem with the Indonesian government. 

HLI Green Power, an Indonesian joint venture established between the Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution, began producing battery cells in the second quarter of this year. These battery cells are a component in the all-new Kona Electric that is being launched in Indonesia on July 17. The Kona Electric is being produced at a Hyundai factory that was built in Indonesia in 2022.

With a population of around 700 million, the ASEAN market is thought to have considerable potential for the next generation of vehicles. And Indonesia is the biggest country in ASEAN, accounting for 29.9% of the region’s automobile market.

Hyundai seems poised to use its electric vehicle ecosystem in Indonesia as a staging ground for expanding into the rest of Southeast Asia. The region was once the turf of Japanese automakers, but recently Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers have been thriving in such countries as Thailand and Malaysia, where they now hold a No. 1 market share.

By Jun Seul-gi, staff reporter

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