Indonesia’s state-owned electric vehicle company is targeting the more than 115 million motorcycles on the country’s roads as it pushes forward with its efforts to cut emissions.
Indonesia’s state-owned electric vehicle company is targeting the more than 115 million motorcycles on the country’s roads as it pushes forward with its efforts to cut emissions.
To start with, Indonesia Battery Corporation plans to produce 50,000 two-wheeler battery packs next year, CEO Toto Nugroho said in an interview on the sidelines of the BloombergNEF Summit on Saturday. The prototype already has security clearances and the start is ready to begin.
“It’s a very good market and it would be good for our environment to reduce emissions and reduce fuel imports, so we’ll work on that first,” he said.
IBC was formed in 2021 to realize chairman Joko Widodo’s ambition to have an end-to-end EV supply chain, from nickel ores to locally made electric cars. The government is under increased pressure to cut oil imports after soaring global crude prices forced it to raise gasoline prices, a move that sparked protests and weakened support for Jokowi, as the president is known.
Only 21,000 motorcycles in Indonesia are electric, meaning many of their riders had to deal with higher fuel costs.
The government aims to increase domestic use of electric vehicles to 2 million units by 2025, and there are plans to offer a 7.5 million rupees ($484) incentive for consumers to swap gas-guzzling motorcycles for the electric ones
Local Minerals
Over the next five years, IBC will produce battery materials and cells while recycling used batteries in a project with partners LG Energy Solution and China’s CATL, Nugroho said. The plant will use renewable energy and meet global standards so it can export products to the US and European markets.
Antam, one of IBC’s parent companies, will form a joint venture to mine battery materials on the eastern island of Halmahera. IBC is investigating how to make batteries using only local natural resources.
“We want to make sure that the battery we produce here doesn’t rely on imported minerals like lithium, graphite and cobalt,” Nugroho said. “We want a battery that doesn’t use those minerals.”