Hyundai Motor Group Breaks Ground on Singapore Global Innovation Center: "Researching the Entire Lifecycle of Future Vehicles"

As a Customer Experience Innovation Hub Encompassing 'Order-Production-Test Drive-Service'

Hyundai Motor Group held the groundbreaking ceremony for HMGICS on the 13th at Hyundai and Kia Motors Namyang Research Center and Jurong Town Hall in western Singapore. (From left) Beh Swan Gin, Chief Executive of Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB); Ahn Young-jip, Ambassador of Korea to Singapore; Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore; Chung Eui-sun, Executive Vice Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group; Sung Yun-mo, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy; Eric Teo, Ambassador of Singapore to Korea (Photo by Hyundai Motor Group)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] Hyundai Motor Group held a groundbreaking ceremony for the ‘Singapore Global Innovation Center (HMGICS)’ on the 13th. HMGICS will serve as an open innovation lab that researches and validates the entire customer automotive lifecycle value chain, from ordering and production to test driving, delivery, and service.

The groundbreaking ceremony was conducted online, connecting Hyundai-Kia Motors’ Namyang Research Center and Jurong Town Hall in the western Jurong area of Singapore via video conference, considering the COVID-19 situation. Attendees in Singapore included Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Korean Ambassador to Singapore Ahn Young-jip, and CEO of the Economic Development Board (EDB) Beh Swan Jin. In Korea, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Sung Yun-mo, Singaporean Ambassador to Korea Eric Teo, and Hyundai Motor Group Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun were present.

In his welcoming remarks, Vice Chairman Chung said, “Hyundai Motor Group will enhance the quality of life for customers based on HMGICS’s vision of ‘human-centered value chain innovation for mobility paradigm shift.’ I am confident that the innovations realized through HMGICS will transform our future and contribute to human progress.”

HMGICS is planned to be completed by the end of 2022, with a total floor area of 90,000 square meters (7 floors above ground) in the Jurong Innovation District of Singapore. The building’s rooftop will feature a 620-meter-long ‘Sky Track’ for high-speed customer test drives, an urban air mobility (UAM) takeoff and landing pad, and solar panels for eco-friendly energy production.

Prime Minister Lee said in his congratulatory speech, “HMGICS is a significant leap for Hyundai Motor Group and the world’s first facility of its kind. Through HMGICS, we will discover new growth engines for Singapore’s economy and create new jobs.”

HMGICS aerial view (Photo by Hyundai Motor Group)

Innovating the Future Mobility Value Chain from Ordering to Production and Service

At the heart of HMGICS’s future mobility value chain innovation is the customer. Hyundai Motor Group’s customers can order cars online via smartphones, and HMGICS uses on-demand production technology to immediately manufacture vehicles tailored to specifications. Customers can directly observe the production process of their vehicles in a dedicated space within HMGICS. Once production is complete, the vehicles are moved to the rooftop Sky Track, where customers can test drive before taking delivery.

HMGICS will also establish a small-scale electric vehicle pilot production system to develop and validate innovative manufacturing platforms. This will serve as a testbed for a human-centered intelligent manufacturing platform integrating advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and robotics.

Plans include researching and validating a flexible multi-model small-scale production system that can respond agilely to market changes and demand. HMGICS’s logistics and assembly systems will be highly automated to create a safe and efficient working environment. Detailed tasks and systems will be controlled by humans, while difficult and hazardous tasks will be performed by robots.

Additionally, Hyundai Motor Group will explore new future mobility businesses to realize a sustainable society. Through the validation of ‘BaaS (Battery as a Service),’ a battery lifecycle-linked service including rental and leasing, they aim to reduce customers’ electric vehicle purchase burdens and improve usability.

Active Collaboration with Singapore’s Innovation Ecosystem to Maximize Synergy

Hyundai Motor Group will pursue close collaboration with local universities, startups, and research institutions in Singapore through HMGICS. Initially, joint research centers will be operated with institutions such as Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to conduct industry-academia projects in future new industries. They are also considering conducting preliminary research on smart city-related tasks prioritized by the Singapore government.

To maximize the effects of open innovation and future technology validation, key organizations and capabilities in innovation business and research and development (R&D) will be integrated into HMGICS. Hyundai Motor Group’s global innovation hub ‘Hyundai Cradle’ and AI-dedicated organization ‘AIR Center’ will be combined with HMGICS. In addition to Hyundai-Kia Motors, group affiliates including Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai Glovis, Hyundai AutoEver, Hyundai Wia, Hyundai Rotem, and Hyundai Transys will actively participate in HMGICS.

Hyundai Motor Group chose Singapore for HMGICS because it judged that Singapore offers optimal location conditions for discovering future new growth engines through open innovation. Singapore is a logistics, finance, and business hub in Southeast Asia with relatively high interest in new services, technologies, and trends. It is open to foreign cultures and has high social acceptance of IT, making it the best testbed for new technologies in the Southeast Asian market.

Beh Swan Jin, CEO of Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB), emphasized, “Hyundai Motor Group is a strategic partner of Singapore striving to meet future mobility demand with innovative technologies.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.