Pertamina showcased on Monday that its first electric vehicle (EV) charging station was the company’s first step in facing the transition to EVs as opposed to fossil fuel-powered vehicles.

The EV charging station is integrated with its gas station (SPBU) in Kuningan, South Jakarta.

“Today, we are launching our Green Energy Station [GES] pilot project in a bid to adapt to renewable energy technology developments. We are aware that the presence of EV is inevitable. That’s why we are moving to fulfill its needs, such as charging stations,” Nicke Widyawati, Pertamina president director, said during the launch.

Nicke said the GES was a combined effort between the government and private businesses as a medium to support the future of EVs in Indonesia.

In the project, the government is represented by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, Industry Ministry, State-Owned Enterprises Ministry and the University of Indonesia (UI), while parties from the private sector involved are global carmakers BMW, Toyota and Mitsubishi, as well as local electric motorcycle producer Gesits and charging station manufacturer Bosch.

“All parties have the same vision to offer the best energy ecosystem for Indonesia,” Nicke said.

As the government is committed to lowering carbon emissions from vehicles by 2025, automotive manufacturers are upbeat about the development of EVs in the country.

German luxury carmakers Mercedes-Benz and BMW plan to invest in one crucial and integral part, namely charging stations.

Recently, Mercedes Indonesia unveiled its first public charging station in Plaza Indonesia’s parking area in Central Jakarta.

Nicke said the GES itself consisted of three concepts: green, future and digital. Green symbolizes the solar power plant (PTS) installed in the station, the future is the EV charging station and while the digital aspect is represented through MyPertamina, the company’s cashless payment solution.

“In the future, the GES is projected to be a place for charging and swapping EV batteries for electric motorbikes,” she said.

At the Kuningan gas station, four charging station units have been installed.

Two units are fast charging, able to fully charge an EV battery in less than 15 minutes, while the other two run at “normal” speeds, able to fully charge a battery in about 30 minutes.

Nicke also said the company was planning to cooperate with 77,000 village-owned enterprises (BUMDes) across the country to provide more environmentally friendly fuel.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan, who attended the launch, showed his appreciation toward the energy company for its initiative to establish general electricity provider stations (SPLU) for EVs.

“My congratulations to the company. However, I would like to suggest if Pertamina could make the charging time less than 10 minutes, so that customers wouldn’t have to wait so long,” Jonan said.

The minister also suggested that Pertamina provide special areas for SPLUs .

“A special space should be provided for SPLUs in spacious gas stations because the charging time is quite long. If not, I think this could create a disturbance. Additionally, the price must be reasonable,” said Jonan.

The minister recently said he hoped that Indonesia could depend less on fossil fuels and shift toward electric vehicles as soon as possible.

Failing to do so, he said, would double imports for fuel products in the next decade.

Previously, Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers (Gaikindo) chairman Jongkie Sugiarto said the development of electric vehicles would depend heavily on tax regulations and infrastructure readiness.

“People will be interested in purchasing electric vehicles if the price is affordable and they have a low tax duty. If the regulation and tax are set lower, more people would be interested in using electric vehicles,” he said. (das)

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