T

he Esemka car, assembled by senior vocational high school students in Surakarta, Central Java, is scheduled to undergo a second emission test in May at the Propulsion and Motor Thermodynamics Center (BTMP) in Serpong, Tangerang, after it failed its first test last month.

PT Solo Manufaktur Kreasi (SMK), the company that would mass produce the car provided all tests are passed, said that the car needed to undergo some improvement work that would be finished by the end of next month at the soonest.

“We don’t want to fail for a second time,” the company’s director Sulistyo Rabono said over the weekend.

The work will include improvements of the body and engine. So far, according to Sulistyo, the body work has proven to be the most time consuming as the team is working on reducing the weight of the car by 700-800 kilograms from the current 2,400 kilograms.

For this purpose, he said, the glass in the car windows would be replaced with thinner glass. “The hood and the doors also need to be remolded,” Sulistyo said.

He said that the weight of the car influenced its gas emissions, adding that the heavier the car was, the more CO it would emit.

Sulistyo also said that so far no changes would be made to the engine except for tune-up work, and the installation of a catalytic converter to help reduce the CO content in the gas emissions.

When the car underwent its first emission test, on Feb. 27, 2012, the SUV (sport utility vehicle) car, which is powered by a 1,500 cc four-cylinder engine, was not fitted with a catalytic converter.

The initial test results, revealed earlier this month, showed that the Esemka’s CO emissions were 11.63 g/km and its HC+NOX level was 2.69 g/km, while the maximum allowed level of CO is 5 g/km, and HC+NOX is capped at 0.7 g/km.

Separately, Surakarta Mayor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said he would continue to support the mass production of Esemka, which many have hailed as a national car, despite his plan to run in the upcoming Jakarta governor race.

“I am ready to drive it myself to the BTMP for the second emission test,” Jokowi said.

For the first emission test, the car was alternately driven by Surakarta Deputy Mayor FX Hadi Rudyatmo and House of Representatives legislator Roy Suryo of the Democratic Party.

Jokowi, however, said that the planned schedule for the car to have its second emission test in May, which is close to the campaign schedule for the gubernatorial race, had nothing to do with his candidacy.

“The Esemka car project has been there since 2010. It has nothing to do with the DKI Jakarta governor election,” he said.