Jakarta, IO – Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan was upbeat that Indonesia can produce its own electric vehicles (EV) by 2025. According to him, this is in line with the country’s ability to produce raw materials for EV batteries.
“By 2025, we will be able to produce lithium batteries and cars,” said Luhut, per Kompas, Saturday (16/9).
He said currently Indonesia is attracting interest from the automotive industry. One of them is Geely Auto Group, the third largest electric car manufacturer in China. Luhut claims that the company is interested in the Indonesian government’s offer to supply nickel ore for electric car batteries. This will be followed up by joint research.
Luhut said he has conveyed to President Joko Widodo that the joint research would involve a number of well-known universities. He projected that assembly of Indonesian-made electric cars will happen in 2026 at the latest.
Jokowi visited the PT Hyundai LG Industry (HLI) Green Power EV battery cell plant in Karawang, West Java, on Thursday (14/9). It is the first and largest of its kind in Southeast Asia which will start production early next year.
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“PT HLI Green Power will start from the beginning of the year producing 30 million battery cells which can be used to produce approximately 180,000 cars,” said Jokowi.
Jokowi said the plant was part of the development of a large-scale EV ecosystem that the government has been promoting. Through a mature ecosystem, it is expected that Indonesia will be able to enter the global EV supply chain. (un)