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Indonesia 'still far' from EV adoption target: Ministry official
The country has 150 electric four-wheelers on the road to date, a fraction of the targeted 400,000 cars by 2025.
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Indonesia has large reserves of both nickel and cobalt, which are the two main raw materials for lithium batteries. The battery is the most expensive component of an EV. (Shutterstock/buffaloboy)
A
n Industry Ministry official has acknowledged that Indonesia is still far from achieving its electric vehicle (EV) adoption goals due to the high prices of EVs and limited availability of charging stations.
Industry Ministry maritime industry, transportation and defense equipment director Sony Sulaksono said Indonesia had only 150 electric four-wheelers, 5,538 two-wheelers and 29 three-wheelers on the road to date, which was "still quite far off" from the government's target of 400,000 electric four-wheelers and 1.76 million two-wheelers by 2025.
"The problems here are the price and the charging stations," he said in the virtual Indonesia Energy Transition Dialogue (IETD) on Thursday.
Sony's comments show that the government is aware of the difficulty of commercializing EVs in Indonesia, despite its ambitious adoption road map, but he also reaffirmed government commitments to issue regulations that favor EVs.
For example, the government issued Government Regulation No. 74/2021 to make EV prices more competitive against internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. The regulation, which stipulated a zero percent luxury tax for EVs, will take effect on Oct. 16.
Sony said the government was also promoting the use of battery swap stations to reduce EV utilization costs and create new business opportunities. Using the battery swap scheme, transportation companies can rent out electric batteries, and charge fees based on the distance traveled by the EVs.
Indonesia launched a first ever battery swap station for electric motorcycles on Sept. 1 last year after the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry issued regulation No. 13/2020 that standardizes charging socket types and centralizes business permit issuance for such stations.
