Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution (LGES) have successfully secured US$710 million (RM3.18 billion) in loans and guarantees for their new battery cell plant in Indonesia.
Five different international financial firms have stepped up with the fund which will be serviced in the next decade as the project progresses as reported by Yonhap. Quite a deal, but since EVs are the future, funders are pumping in huge figures in the hope of seeing massive gains in the long run.
New EV battery cell plant in Karawang region by 2024
Considering the fact that this joint venture project amounts to a whopping $1.1 billion (over RM4.9 billion), a special form of debt guarantee is needed to seal the deal. This is why Hyundai Motor Co., Kia Corp., Hyundai Mobis Co., and LGES will all provide debt guarantees proportionate to the value of their stakes in the project via The Korea Trade Insurance Corp.
Since more than half of the funding has been approved, the go-ahead has been given to build Hyundai’s new EV battery cell plant in the new industrial complex of the Karawang region, east of Jakarta.
If everything follows the right schedule and timing, mass production can begin as soon as the first half of 2024. As a start, the goal of the plant is to supply 10 GWh worth of battery cells in the first few years, which can be used for over 150,000 EVs.
Once that has been accomplished, Hyundai’s latest EV battery cell plant can be expanded to accommodate up to 30 GWh per year. That’s enough juice to power close to half a million EVs. Power, literally.