South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution (LGES) – one of the world’s largest battery makers, which is headquartered in Seoul – have launched Indonesia’s first battery cell production plant with the capacity to produce up to 10 gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery cells every year.

The joint venture is part of a commitment between the two companies made in 2020 that will see investment of up to $9.8bn in Indonesia to develop an electric vehicle (EV) supply chain.

This new battery cell factory in West Java province will have enough annual capacity to produce batteries that can power more than 150,000 battery-based EVs.

Indonesia, which is the world’s top producer of nickel, banned exports of raw nickel in 2020 to encourage investment into domestic processing of the metal.

At the new plant’s opening ceremony, executive chair of the Hyundai Motor Group Euisun Chung said: “Mineral resources of this nation, such as iron and nickel, are important components in batteries that will mobilise...