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.
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.
Change Size
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.
Read also: Indonesia needs 31,000 charging stations to reach electric vehicle goals
Industry Ministry Regulation No. 27/2020, issued on Sept. 17 last year, has set the EV road map to accelerate EV industry growth as part of the government's larger scheme to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 29 percent by 2030.On the other hand, the number of charging stations reached 240 nationwide, or 61 percent of the target of 390 set for this year, according to energy ministry data.
The 240 charging stations consist of 166 EV charging stations (SPKLU) and private EV charging stations, as well as 74 public EV battery swap stations (SPBKLU).
"We hope more people will be interested in using electric vehicles," the energy ministry's electrification secretary Munir Ahmad said in a statement on Sept. 9.
State-owned electricity giant PLN estimates that Indonesia needs more than 31,000 new EV charging stations by 2030 to reach government goals.
Over the course of 10 years, private and public players would need to invest Rp 54.6 trillion (US$3.7 billion) to install 31,000 commercial charging stations, according to PLN's station development road map.
Read also: Electric motorbikes to lead EV adoption in Indonesia
Consultancy McKinsey & Company senior expert Rahul Gupta said Indonesia could potentially have 25 million EVs on the road by 2035, creating a Rp 500 trillion business opportunity, most of which comes from vehicle production, but also from battery production, financial services and charging stations.
"We project two-wheeled vehicles to be the prime mover toward higher [EV] penetration in Indonesia," Rahul said on Thursday.
