It produces up to 30,000 cars per year
An interesting video demonstrating the new Hyundai car production plant was published by The Wall Street Journal. It shows Boston Dynamics' robot dog Spot performing quality control, autonomous robotic arms tightening bolts and installing windshield wipers, and autonomous ground vehicles moving components and electric vehicles to different areas of the plant.
With so much autonomous equipment, the presence of humans is not surprising. «Sixty percent of tasks are performed by robots», — said one Motor1.com editor who visited the Singapore plant last month. To produce 30,000 cars per year, only 100 workers are needed.
This is not your typical car plant. This is a «microfactory», the purpose of which— Reinvent manufacturing by producing cars in «cells», rather than on a traditional production line. Interestingly, «microfactory» Hyundai, as the name suggests, is much smaller than traditional car factories.
For example, the Tesla Gigafactory in Texas has an area of about 930,000 square meters and is capable of producing more than 250,000 electric vehicles per year. Hyundai's Singapore plant, one of three production bases for the Ioniq 5 besides South Korea and Indonesia, covers an area of just 86,000 square meters and has an annual production capacity of 30,000 vehicles.
In the cells, robots install vehicle components before moving on to the next area. A key feature is that the cells can be programmed with specific instructions, ranging from installing components for different variants of the same car or working on a completely different model. Traditional assembly lines will require significant retooling to achieve the same adaptability.
Plant in Singapore — It's a technology showcase and specifically designed for urban areas where space is at a premium.