TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
BYD, other carmakers to follow through on local factory plans: Govt
Aside from easing local content rules, the government's EV investment scheme compels foreign makers to make good on their promise to build local factories, a senior official says.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
A BYD Seal is parked on July 4, 2024 at the Chinese electric carmaker’s manufacturing factory in Rayong, an industrial area southeast of Bangkok. BYD’s first factory in Southeast Asia has an annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles. (Reuters/Chalinee Thirasupa)
T
he government has reaffirmed BYD’s plan to build an electric vehicle (EV) factory in Indonesia after the Chinese automaker completed building its first Southeast Asian facility in Thailand.
Rachmat Kaimuddin, transportation and infrastructure undersecretary at the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister, said BYD was obligated to build its local factory as stipulated in Presidential Regulation No. 79/2023, and that the government had implemented a mechanism to ensure it followed through on its commitments.
“It’s not just promises, we hold [the company’s] guarantee in a bank,” he told The Jakarta Post on July 15.
BYD opened its first regional EV plant in Thailand on July 4, roughly two years after announcing its plan to build a factory in that country as part of a wave of Chinese EV investments worth more than US$1.44 billion, helped by subsidies and tax incentives from the Thai government.
Read also: China's BYD opens EV factory in Thailand, first in Southeast Asia
The Chinese EV maker also plans to build a factory in Vietnam, but its local partner said in March that progress had slowed due to the lagging EV market.
Rachmat also made reassurances that the government had learned from Thailand’s initiative.
