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Mr. Khay Guan Lim is the influential Managing Director of HARTING Singapore Pte Ltd, a leading global company in industrial connection technology. His leadership extends across diverse markets in ASEAN, Australia, New Zealand (ANZ), Greater China, and India, demonstrating his significant responsibility. With extensive industry experience and a broad understanding of international business environments, Mr. Lim plays a pivotal role in navigating strategic management decisions within HARTING Singapore Pte Ltd regional divisions.

As the Managing Director at HARTING Singapore Pte Ltd, Mr. Lim bears the responsibility of overseeing the financial performance and operational efficiency of the company in his assigned regions. Additionally, he actively leads the way in devising growth strategies, increasing market share, and collaborating with key stakeholders to guarantee long-term success in all the markets under his supervision.

Mr. Lim's leadership in HARTING Singapore Pte Ltd clearly showcases his value - effectively handling diverse responsibilities across four regions and nurturing robust business relationships demands both expertise and fortitude. His contributions are instrumental in shaping the future direction of this prominent industrial connection technology company.

1. In your experience, what are the key challenges in implementing e-mobility solutions in Southeast Asia (or in general) and how would you address them?

We see several challenges facing the implementation of e-mobility solutions:

Parity in TCO:

As long as BEVs are still more expensive compared to similar ICE vehicles, consumers will hesitate to buy an electric vehicle. As HARTING, we address this topic from two sides. On the one hand we create knowledge among our customers to focus not only on the purchasing cost, but on the total cost of an electric vehicle over its entire lifetime.

On the other hand, we support our customers with our broad connectivity portfolio to fasten up installations in EV production and battery manufacturing to finally lower production cost and following the price of the vehicle

Battery range:

In nearly all markets we still see concerns in battery life and battery range. Consumer education and ownership experience will be key to address this range anxiety.

By supporting the industry with our charging connectors in the field of fast charging, HARTING supports the industry to offer high power charging solutions to address the range anxiety of their customers.

Lack of charging Infrastructure:

Beside the fast ramp up of BEVs, charging infrastructure is still lacking behind in most of the ASEAN markets.

With our broad portfolio in connectivity as well as our solutions in the field of charging connectors, HARTING supports the industry with the needed products to speed up assembly and installations of charging stations and wall boxes.

Regulatory Environment:

The regulatory environment is a pre-requisite for the financial and operational viability of EVs and has an important role to play in enhancing the attractiveness of the region’s markets for the industrialization of the EV sector. Clear regulations need to be implemented to drive electrification among the ASEAN regions. Very often political regulations differ in regions, caused by different interests of there spective governmental initiatives.

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2. How do you approach customization when it comes to connector solutions?

How important is it to tailor products specifically to the needs of customers in these diverse markets? When it comes to standardized products, such as charging connectors, the degree of customization is very low. As this market is mainly price driven, we must find the right mixture to customize the product without having a significant increase on price level.

As the market of electric vehicles is not only growing in the field of passenger cars, but also in nearly all other mobility segments like buses, trucks, off-highway and marine applications, the aim of standardization is very high. For HARTING, customized solutions are very important in these areas because often a future standard is developed out of customized solutions. Furthermore, by tailored solutions we position ourselves in the market, gain technical and regulatory knowledge and create a reliable and successful relationship with our customers.

To offer our customers the flexibility and reliability they need when it comes to tailored solutions, HARTING Customized Solutions (HCS) is specialized in fulfilling individual needs and requirements from the customers in terms of connector design and system offerings.

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3. How does HARTING differentiate itself from competitors in terms of customized connector solutions?

Can you provide specific examples of how customization has added value to customers? Especially in standard connectors a differentiation becomes difficult. It often results in small product adjustments which only in a few cases offer significant benefits to the customer. When it comes to products beside this standardization, HARTING plays a significant role in developing totally new solutions together with single customers in the field of charging connectors for special applications as well as customized connectors for the installation and integration process in the field of charging stations and wall boxes. But also, future customer requirements play a significant role in customization. Here HARTING is in close collaboration with several key customers to develop the future connectivity solutions. Customized today – Standard in the future.

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4. In the field of e-mobility solutions, what emerging trends or technologies do you see as crucial for future growth?

Grid expansion and Energy availability: As BEVs are gaining share among all global regions, the expansion of the grid becomes more and more crucial for future growth. Only if electricity can be provided on a sufficient scale to support the future demand and only if the energy can be provided where it is needed, electromobility can unlock its potential. Furthermore, the expansion of renewable energies is an essential part in adopting electric vehicles. Only if electricity for EVs is generated on a renewable base, the advantages of this technology in terms of CO² reduction can be applied on a sustainable way.

Fast Charging :

Higher charging power will be another crucial topic in the future. Against the background of electrification not only in the field of passenger cars, but also in the field of commercial vehicles, aviation and marine applications, high charging power will be essential to fulfill the requirements of this industry. Especially DC applications will play a crucial role in the future charging infrastructure environment.

Bidirectional- and smart Charging :

‍In our opinion smart charging and bidirectional charging will unlock the total potential of electric vehicles in general. It will help to stabilize the grid, save energy by controlling the charging process, provide back-up energy and offers also the future possibility for customers to earn/safe money by the smart use of better electricity tariffs for charging the vehicles. Bidirectional charging will be the essential technology to integrate the electric mobility concept to the whole energy landscape and will offer significant potential in energy saving and CO² reduction.

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5. How would you align the goals and objectives of the different regions under your responsibility with the overall strategic vision of HARTING?

HARTING Singapore Pte Ltd was set up in 1998. HARTING operates in Malaysia and business partners in Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. HARTING has built up our manufacturing capabilities in ZhuHai, China, Chennai, India and Hai Duong, Vietnam.

HARTING Singapore draws on the group's strengths to develop customized solutions and products for machinery, automation, robotics, railway, mobility, energy, and smart infrastructure.

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6. What’s are HARTING long term future vision?

Our vision to strengthening our production and development activities such as supplying the connectivity for all-electric society- for an electrified and decarbonized world. We take these opportunities to promote the climate transition and sustainability with their innovation solutions. We want to become a global company. We are pursuing this course courageously, consistently and with a great measure of hope.

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About HARTING:

The HARTING Technology Group is one of the world’s leading suppliers of industrial connection technology. Spread around the entire globe, HARTING has some 6,500 employees working at 44 sales and distribution companies, 15 production plants and six R&D locations. HARTING connectivity solutions are deployed in numerous branches of industry for the transmission of “data, signals and power”. Areas of application include transportation, electro-mobility, renewable energy generation, automation and mechanical and plant engineering. As a family-owned company, HARTING generated a turnover of EUR 1,059 million in 2021/22.

HARTING Singapore was set up in March 1998. In addition to the Headquarter and warehouse in Singapore, HARTING operates in Malaysia and has business partners in Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam. HARTING's commitment to do business in SEAsia remains strong.

The well-known, customer-facing HARTING brand remains unchanged and steadfast in SE Asia and provides professional and customized service to our esteemed customers. HARTING holds extensive and in-depth competence in the fields of electrical, electronic and optical connections, transmission and network technology. HARTING Singapore draws on the group's strengths to develop customized solutions and products for energy and data transmission and networking, mechanical engineering, rail technology, wind energy, factory automation and the telecommunications sectors.

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