Asia Tech Wire (July 3) -- Hyundai Motor Group announced Wednesday that it has opened its first battery plant for electric vehicles in Indonesia, jointly built with LG Energy Solution Ltd.

In September 2021, the two South Korean companies began construction of this $1.1 billion plant in Karawang New Industry City, near Jakarta.

It is also Indonesia's first EV battery plant, with a planned initial annual capacity of 10 GWh, enough to power more than 150,000 EVs.

With the launch of the new plant, Hyundai said it has established a locally integrated production system in Indonesia from EV batteries to complete vehicles.

The plant went into operation in the second quarter of this year, and the Korean automaker's automobile manufacturing plant in Indonesia will start mass production of the Kona Electric SUV from this month, using batteries produced at the plant.