Hyundai EVs race to top spot in Indonesia

Over half of the electric vehicles sold in Indonesia this year were made by Hyundai Motor, the Korean automaker that has been steadily strengthening its presence in the Southeast Asian market largely dominated by a handful of Japanese automakers.

Hyundai Motor said Tuesday it sold a total of 3,913 EVs in Indonesia this year through the end of July, grabbing 56.5 percent of the market share.

It became the No. 1 EV maker after China’s Wuling Motors with 28.1 percent and Toyota Motors with 5.2 percent, according to data from the Association of Indonesia Automotive Industries.

The Ioniq 5 led the upward trend, with a total of 3,819 units sold, or 98 percent of its total EV sales, during the same period.

Hyundai was the first automaker that started producing EVs in Indonesia. Hyundai built a $1.55 billion manufacturing plant in Bekasi of West Java, Indonesia, last year — the automaker’s first in the Asean region.

Indonesia is rich in natural resources essential to making EV batteries, with the world’s largest nickel reserves estimated at 21 million tons, around 22 percent of the total, according to U.S. Geological Survey data. The agency estimates Indonesia produced 760,000 tons of nickel in 2020.

Hyundai is also building an EV battery plant with LG Energy Solution in Karawang Regency, Indonesia. The factory will have an annual production capacity of 10 gigawatt-hours, or enough for approximately 150,000 EVs, and will begin operation in 2024. Its batteries will be sourced to Hyundai’s Bekasi plant.

Hyundai recently introduced the Ioniq 6 to the Indonesian market.

On Tuesday, Hyundai Motor Indonesia signed a deal with local retailer Lippo Malls Indonesia to install EV charging stations in 52 Lippo shopping mall branches across Indonesia.

Led by the sale of EVs, Hyundai’s presence in Indonesia’s overall vehicle market has also been growing. It was the 13th largest automaker in 2021 in terms of vehicle sales, including EVs and internal combustion engine cars, but that rank jumped to 8th in 2022 and 6th this year.

Hyundai’s vehicle production surged tenfold to 31,965 in 2022 compared to 2021. It produced 20,065 vehicles this year through the end of July, up 48.1 percent on-year.

“With the Indonesian plant as our Asean EV hub, Hyundai Motor will target the high-potential Asean region with around 670 million people and plentiful resources,” the company said Tuesday.

The size of the Asean auto market was around 1.64 million units in the first half, up 1.2 percent on-year, according to the Asean Automotive Federation.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]