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Indonesia EV battery industry in limbo amid uncertain roadmap, rule
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Metal boom: Smoke rises on Feb. 10 from a nickel smelter belonging to Chinese miner Virtue Dragon Nickel Industry (VDNI) in Morosi, Southeast Sulawesi. The facility was part of the huge rush among domestic and foreign enterprises to mine the critical component used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries in Indonesia, the world's largest nickel producer. (AFP/Adek Berry)
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eveloping Indonesia’s battery industry is expected to remain a challenging task, as the industry is still beset with a lack of regulation and an unclear path forward, which many fear could hamper the country’s electric vehicle (EV) ambitions.
Policies and regulations are deemed essential to drive and promote electrification in the early years of EV adoption, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Evidence of the effectiveness of these factors can be seen in the major expansion of electric car models in places such as the United States, China and Europe.
Toto Nugroho, the director of the state-owned Indonesia Battery Corporation (IBC), said that Indonesia is still lacking rules related to the governance of the domestic battery industry, especially those related to stakeholders’ responsibilities and state-owned enterprises’ (SOEs) roles as developers.
He also stressed a need to quickly introduce regulations in other areas to support the EV battery industry, such as standardization and recycling.
“Furthermore, to date, a road map for battery industry development remains unclear,” he told House Commission VII overseeing energy and mineral resources in Jakarta on Monday.
Read also: Antam to sign joint venture deal on EV battery plant in December
Evvy Kartini, an EV battery expert and founder of the National Battery Research Institute (NBRI), said that the National Standardization Agency (BSN) has issued the Indonesian National Standard (SNI) for EV batteries, but it has yet to include swappable batteries.
