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fter a hiatus of several years, the country looks set to revive its dream of developing an electric car, as both industry players and government officials discuss a roadmap for the project.

The Industry Ministry'€™s director general of metals, machinery, transportation equipment and electronic industries, I Gusti Putu Suryawirawan, said an electric car was the next target for the automotive industry to prevent the country from being only a consuming country.

'€œThe opportunity for local industry to independently develop an electric car is still wide open, as the technology is still being developed and there isn'€™t any dominant player in the sector yet,'€ he said on Wednesday in a discussion attended by industry players, academics and government officials.

At present, the number of electric cars in the world stands at only 4 million; it is forecast to hit 10 million in 2020.

While a detailed roadmap for the national production of electric cars is not available yet, the government is ready to facilitate the establishment of an engineering center, Putu said. '€œIf I'€™m not mistaken, the electric car is exempt from the luxury tax,'€ he added, highlighting the government'€™s incentive for the development of electric cars.

Karlo Manik, head of a sub-directorate at the Transportation Ministry'€™s land transportation directorate general, said the electric car would also be excluded from emission testing.

The former minister for state-owned enterprises (SOEs), Dahlan Iskan, initiated and supported the development of electric cars, and a locally made electric car was demonstrated at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in 2013 at Bali.

However, the project was hanging in the balance and was dragged down in an alleged corruption case.

National Electric Vehicle Developers Association (Apklibernas) chairman Sukotjo Herupramono said a number of local manufacturers were ready to mass-produce electric cars, but he argued that support from the government was needed.

He proposed that the government fully open the development of electric cars with engines of more than 75 kilowatt-hours (kWh) for foreign investment but reserve the segment of less powerful engines for local players.

'€œWe are looking forward. Our target is that we acquire 10 percent of the country'€™s total car market once the supporting system is well established,'€ he said. Indonesian car sales stand at around 1 million vehicles a year, the highest in the Southeast Asian region.

Muhammad Nur Yuniarto, head of the National Electric Car (Molina) team, said an electric car would help the country reduce its dependence on oil imports should it be manufactured on a large scale.

Molina is a consortium of academics and researchers from the country'€™s top five universities, namely Gadjah Mada University (UGM), University of Indonesia (UI), Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Sepuluh November Institute (ITS) and Sebelas Maret University (UNS).

He added, however, that local manufacturers likely still needed to import some components to produce electric car batteries.

The use of electric cars, Putu said, would also help the country meet its commitments to cut carbon emissions by 29 percent below the business-as-usual scenario by 2030.

The drawback of electric cars, however, is that drivers need to charge the batteries for four hours before being able to cover a distance of 100 kilometers.