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Tesla to sign investment deal in Indonesia within months: Luhut
Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan says the US car company wants to invest in the production of materials to make lithium batteries for electric vehicles, with a deal expected in September or October.
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oordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan has announced that tech billionaire Elon Musk will come to Indonesia as soon as next month to settle Tesla's investment in the country.
The minister said the deal would be for materials to make lithium batteries for electric vehicles (EVs).
"Before I went back, his team agreed not to make a memorandum of understanding (MoU) [when they come to Indonesia] but move straight to an agreement. Let's wait until Musk comes here by the end of September or October this year," Luhut said through his official Instagram account on Monday.
The minister did not disclose the size of the proposed investment Tesla will pour into the country but said it was "big enough". Meeting Musk, who is the CEO of both Tesla and spacecraft provider SpaceX, was the main item on the minister’s agenda for his recent trip to San Francisco in the United States.
According to Luhut, Musk and Tesla's board of commissioners have decided to halt their investment globally, as well as suspend production in their factory in Mexico. Global economic uncertainty due to tension between the US and China was one of the reasons, he reportedly said.
"Tesla is having an oversupply [problem]. They produced 3 million units [of EVs], but only 1.8 million have been absorbed [by the market]. Musk said he didn’t want Tesla to suffer a [fate] similar to that of [General Motors], which went bankrupt because of oversupply," Luhut stated.
Tesla was not immediately available for comment.
Indonesia has been wooing Tesla since 2020 to invest in the country's EV and EV battery-manufacturing industry, seeking to leverage its rich reserves of nickel ore for use in domestic battery production. President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo even met with Musk in person last year at the SpaceX facility in Texas.
However, no investment has materialized up until now.
Read also: Luhut claims progress on Tesla as govt rolls out EV incentives
Aside from Tesla, Luhut said Musk and he had also discussed Starlink, a satellite communication service of SpaceX that provides broadband internet connections through a constellation of small satellites in low earth orbit.
The firm intends to provide services in rural areas of Indonesia, according to the minister.
"We agreed with Musk that Starlink could operate in the eastern part of Indonesia," he stated, adding that Starlink could provide internet connections for any village, which would help to improve health and education services in the region.
Read also: Rethinking Indonesia's future at low earth orbit
The minister said he had also met with representatives of Nvidia during his trip to the US.
Nvidia is a US-based technology firm that develops software and hardware for artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, including OpenAI's ChatGPT.
"I invited them to come to Indonesia [...]. The Nvidia cofounder and CEO wants to come here," Luhut said.
