Hyundai Motor Group, South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate controlling the country’s biggest carmaker and auto parts maker, will build an open innovation lab in Singapore that will be its research & development hub for future mobility technologies and services by 2022.

The conglomerate on Tuesday broke ground for Hyundai Mobility Global Innovation Center in Singapore (HMGICS) in Singapore. The groundbreaking ceremony, attended by Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Korean Ambassador to Singapore Ahn Young-jip, Korea’s Industry and Energy Minister Sung Yun-mo, Singapore Ambassador to Korea Eric Teo, and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Vice Chairman Chung Euisun, was held virtually in the two countries due to Covid-19.

HMGICS will be an open innovation lab of Hyundai Motor Group that serves as the group’s future mobility technology development hub as well as a comprehensive customer driving experience and service center that receives car orders, produces cars on demand, provides test-driving, delivers cars and offers car care services.

The auto mogul that owns Korea’s two largest car makers Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. chose Singapore – a logistics, financial, and business hub in Southeast Asia – as its future mobility R&D center hub because of the city state’s openness toward foreign culture and new technologies. The country also can offer highly skilled workers thanks to its decent education system.

The Korean auto giant also hopes that HMGICS can help improve its brand awareness in Southeast Asia.

Hyundai Motor Group aims to complete construction of HMGICS by the end of 2022. The seven-story center will be built on a 44,000-square meter land and total floor area of 90,000 square meters in Singapore’s Jurong Innovation District. On top of the building will be a 620-meter sky track that allows customers high-speed test-driving, urban air mobility landing field for city aircrafts, and solar panels for environmentally-friendly energy production.

The center will also accommodate various facilities for customer services, offices, the R&D center, and car production facilities.

HMGICS will fully incorporate artificial intelligence (AI), information and communication technologies (ICT), and big data to bring innovation to mobility technologies and experiences, the company explained. For that, it will actively seek partnership with local universities, startups, and research centers in Singapore and operate a joint research center with Nanyang Technological University.

The new center will also focus on research into application of clean and green energy sources such as solar and hydrogen to run vehicles to reach carbon neutrality and save resources.

In its opening remarks, Singapore Prime Minister Lee hoped HMGIC can open up new growth areas for Singapore that is committed to phasing out petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040 under Paris Agreement commitments and create new jobs for Singaporeans.

Korean trade minister Sung also hoped that HMGICS can provide a new milestone in the bilateral economic partnership between the two countries.

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Vice Chairman Chung expected that HMGICS will contribute to enhancing quality of life with its vision to bring human-centered value chain innovation for a paradigm shift in mobility, and pledged to continue to offer products and services tailored to customers’ needs.

HMGICS will invite Hyundai Motor Group’s R&D experts from all of the world, including those from the Hyundai CRADLE innovation hub and AI Research Center. It will be also joined by not only Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, but also other Hyundai Motor affiliates, such as Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai Glovis, Hyundai Autoever, Hyundai Wia, Hyundai Rotem, and Hyundai Transys.

By Lee Jong-hyuk and Lee Eun-joo

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]