Grab Indonesia's electric vehicle trial service, to begin in January next year, will be financed by Softbank, a Japanese conglomerate.
ide-hailing company Grab Indonesia will introduce electric vehicles (EVs) to Greater Jakarta in January next year as part of a trial service in partnership with local and foreign vehicle manufacturers.
Grab Indonesia president director Ridzki Kramadibrata said at the launch of the firm’s EV Ecosystem Road Map event on Dec. 13 that the trial would be run in line with Presidential Regulation No. 55/2019, which was issued to speed up the development of the nation’s EV industry.
The government set a target for the industry to start producing EVs by 2021 or 2022, with output targets of 400,000 electric cars and 200,000 electric motorbikes by 2025.
Grab Indonesia's EV trial program will be financed with an investment worth Rp 27 trillion (US$2 billion) placed by Softbank, a Japanese conglomerate.
Softbank chief executive officer Masayoshi Son expressed interest in investing in the development of Indonesia's EV industry through Grab Indonesia when he visited President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo in Jakarta in July.
Grab Indonesia, which has seen over 4 billion trips since 2012, will join Blue Bird in using EVs for a taxi service. The latter launched its so-called electric taxi in April, using 25 electric cars from Chinese automaker BYD Auto and five others from American automaker Tesla.
For its own electric taxi service, called Grab Car Electric, Grab will use 20 Hyundai Ioniq electric cars, which have a 380-kilometer driving range with a fully charged 38-kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery.
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