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Taxi firm Blue Bird looking for alternative EV vendors
Blue Bird currently has around 180 electric four-wheelers, a tiny fraction of its fleets for the taxi and rental business.
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Blue Bird CEO Adrianto Djokosoetono speaks to journalists at the company's Jakarta headquarters on July 17, 2023. (JP/Aditya Hadi/JP/Aditya Hadi)
Taxi operator Blue Bird wants to electrify 10 percent of its fleet by 2030 without hurting its bottom line.
"If we want to add electric vehicles [EVs] [aggressively] to make up more than 10 percent, of course we can, but with the current [profitability] calculation, we can't afford to buy more than that," Blue Bird president director Adrianto Djokosoetono said in a press briefing on Monday.
According to Adrianto, the purchasing price is the biggest concern in making the switch to EV. Thus, the firm is looking for alternative manufacturers that can provide reliable vehicles at affordable prices, on top of its existing partners BYD, Tesla and Hyundai.
Previously, Bloomberg reported that Blue Bird would turn to BYD for 80 percent of its EV fleet, while reviewing its Tesla orders.
"We can continue with the existing manufacturers, or with different ones. It's similar with our internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, where we are not only using a single brand," explained Adrianto, who has been with the company for 23 years and was appointed CEO last month.
Blue Bird currently has around 180 electric four-wheelers, but that is only 0.8 percent of all the vehicles used for its taxi and rental business. The EVs have been deployed mostly in Jakarta and Bali but have also been trialed in Semarang and other major cities on Java.
Read also: Blue Bird looks to China’s BYD to build EV fleet
