The government, through the Ministry of SOEs (BUMN), is trying hard to develop the electric vehicle ecosystem in Indonesia. In order to reach the target of developing battery facilities of up to 230 GWH by 2023, the government is inviting China and South Korea to collaborate.
SOE Deputy Minister Pahala Mansury said that for the development of electric cars, the Ministry of SOEs is trying to develop two battery ecosystems in collaboration with two partners China and Korea.
He also hopes that with this collaboration, battery production will also be used not only for use in Indonesia but can also be exported to other countries.
Meanwhile, in the development of electric vehicle battery facilities in 2023, Pahala stressed being able to grow the use of electric motor-based vehicles. This sees the more feasible economics of electric motorbikes, with the target of obtaining the development of electric motorbikes for 300,000 electric motorbikes operating on the road.
“This requires electric motor production capacity, especially the electric vehicle battery ecosystem. BUMN will develop it through Gesits,” he added.
Previously, Pahala also emphasized that the program to accelerate the formation of the electric vehicle ecosystem was also expected to be able to absorb the excess supply of electricity from PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (Persero) or PLN which is estimated to have an oversupply of electricity reaching 7 gigawatts (GW) at the end of 2022 to early 2023.
BUMN Minister Erick Thohir said the acceleration of the development of the electric vehicle ecosystem was also a strategy to reduce fuel imports.
“Regarding BBM, God gave us something good, but we never built a roadmap seriously. Not many other countries have nickels. If we are consistent in building an electric vehicle ecosystem, we can significantly reduce imported fuel, especially if we encourage B35 and ethanol, it can reduce imports. fuel,” he said.
The BUMN Ministry will conduct a trial run for PTPN to produce ethanol with gas stations which will be launched in Surabaya.
On the other side, the general chairman of the Indonesian Motor Association (IMI) Bambang Soesatyo (Bamsoet) sees a positive impact on the transition from conventional vehicles to electric vehicles. According to him, this could be a new opportunity for Indonesian mechanics.
Bamsoet assesses that the use of electric vehicles in Indonesia will not displace existing mechanics. However, he said, Indonesian mechanics only need to add lessons related to electrification vehicles.
Bamsoet further said that the repair and maintenance of electric vehicles are much easier than conventional vehicles. Because according to him, there are not too many components and spare parts compared to gasoline-fueled vehicles.