Debated in Parliament on 4 Nov 2020.
Mr Desmond Choo asked the Minister for Trade and Industry with the setting up of Singapore's first car-making plant (a) how many jobs will be created by this venture; and (b) how does the Ministry plan to grow the electric and autonomous driving industries in the longer term.
I wish to clarify that Hyundai’s venture is not Singapore’s first car-making plant. Ford and Mercedes Benz used to assemble cars in Singapore until the 1980s.
Nonetheless, the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Centre in Singapore is an exciting investment in our future of electric mobility. The new facility is projected to manufacture 30,000 electric vehicles per year by 2025. It will also create exciting jobs for Singaporeans, in roles such as Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) engineers, data scientists, cobot technicians and digital supply chain strategists. The actual number of roles is still being finalised.
Electric and autonomous mobility is the future of mobility in a land and carbon constrained world. We will therefore grow the electric and autonomous driving industries in Singapore by attracting investments across the mobility value chain, including from companies like Motional and ST Engineering which are developing and testing autonomous vehicle technology, and Desay SV which is engaged in R&D efforts for vehicle autonomy and automotive cybersecurity. We will also continue building our mobility ecosystem among various industry players, including global OEMs and Tier One automotive suppliers like BMW, Continental and Borgwarner.
The future urban mobility ecosystem will create exciting job opportunities in traditional functions given a new "spin" – such as in (i) R&D – for example in battery technologies, (ii) design – as electric vehicles can take on a different form factor, (iii) manufacturing – enabled by an even higher level of robotics, (iv) maintenance – of a much more IOT and electrified vehicle, (v) sales and support – where smart navigation systems become mainstream; and also new jobs in autonomous driving system development, sensor development etc.
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