Jakarta. South Korean carmaker Hyundai is planning to launch a brand new electric vehicle (EV) model equipped with batteries produced in Indonesia this year.

Budi Nur Mukmin, the chief marketing officer at Hyundai Motors Indonesia, unveiled the plans on the sidelines of the Indonesia International Motor Show (IIMS) in Jakarta on Friday. 

“Hyundai is a leader in the EV segment. We will continue to develop the EV ecosystem in Indonesia. We will also produce local batteries,” Budi told reporters.

“So we will launch new EV products that are not only assembled here in Indonesia, but they also run on domestically made batteries. We will launch them sometime this year,” Budi said.

Budi, however, did not elaborate on this new EV product, leaving out details on the battery specifications and mileage. By “new”, it does not mean Hyundai will simply equip existing products with domestically produced batteries. Budi said: “This is an entirely new product.”

Hyundai has partnered with South Korean battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution to construct a $1.1 billion EV battery cell plant in Karawang. The factory is expected to have an annual capacity of 10 GWh worth of lithium-ion battery cells. This is enough to power over 150,000 battery-based EVs. The factory lies in a 330,000-square-meter parcel of land. 

Hyundai became the first automaker to produce EVs in Indonesia with its Ioniq 5 model. According to the Association of Indonesian Automotive Industry (Gaikindo), the factory-to-dealer sales of battery electric vehicles totaled 17,062 units throughout 2023. Hyundai Ioniq 5 became the most popular model that year, selling about 7,176 units. Hyundai assembles its Ioniq 5 at its Cikarang plant.