Indonesia Only Has 2 Electric Car Manufacturers

An officer charges an electric car at the General Electric Vehicle Charging Station (SPKLU) in the Fatmawati area, Jakarta, Saturday (12/12 - 2020). ANTARA PHOTO\\r\\n
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President Jokowi wants to encourage the use of electric cars. He even gave instructions to the central and local governments to use them as official vehicles. However, Indonesia only has two electric car manufacturers. It takes the support of many parties to make this dream come true.

The Association of Indonesian Automotive Industries (Gaikindo) also challenges manufacturers to bring more electric cars to Indonesia.

“With the positive trend of public interest and enthusiasm, this encourages manufacturers to immediately introduce EV (electric vehicle/electric car) variants. Some manufacturers already have their products, just when are they going to be brought to Indonesia? Assembled in Indonesia using components and batteries made here?” said Secretary General of Gaikindo Kukuh Kumara to reporters, Thursday (15/9/22).

The Indonesian market is still very large, while the capacity of electric car manufacturers in Indonesia is still small. Even only able to make tens of thousands of vehicles per year.

Even then, there are only two manufacturers that produce electric cars in the country, namely Wuling and Hyundai.

Other manufacturers are observed to be starting to get ready. As seen during GIIAS 2022, several APM introduced their electric cars.

Among them, Toyota introduced the bZ4X, then the Lexus UX 300e, Honda with the Honda CR-V Hybrid and Honda Accord Hybrid, to Daihatsu which introduced the electric car version of Ayla’s LCGC vehicle, the Ayla EV. However, it has not been mass-produced in Indonesia.

“Currently, there are two manufacturers ready, domestic capacity is still in the range of 13,000 per year. We want even if there is an acceleration in the use of electric vehicles, it uses vehicles that are made and assembled in Indonesia. Do not let all the vehicles be imported, there must be suitability, the new capacity is 13 thousand a year, that’s what is currently available,” said Kukuh.

“We hope that other manufacturers will start producing domestically soon. Our potential is huge. If you own 99 cars per 1,000 population, just increase one to 100/1,000, so there are 270,000 cars to sell. If all cars are electric, who will produce them here? Because it is made domestically, it should not be filled with imported products, because it will damage our foreign exchange balance,” said Kukuh.

As previously reported, In an effort to the energy transition, the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, gave instructions to the central and regional governments to use electric vehicles as official vehicles.

PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (Persero) or PLN also stated its readiness to support reliable electricity supply in response to the presidential instruction.

The mandate is contained in Presidential Instruction or Presidential Instruction No. 7 of 2022 concerning the Use of Battery Electric Motorized Vehicles (Battery Electric Vehicles) as Operational Service Vehicles and/or Individual Vehicles for Central Government Agencies and Regional Governments. The regulation was signed by President Jokowi on Tuesday (13/9/2022).

PLN President Director Darmawan Prasodjo said his party had prepared infrastructure and supporting services to answer the needs of electric vehicle users in the future.

“The President’s direction is to change from imported energy to domestic, from expensive energy too cheap, and energy with high carbon emissions to low carbon emission energy,” said Darmawan in a press release, Thursday (15/9/2022).