President Jokowi: Electric Vehicle Subsidy For Competitive Indonesia

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) delivered his remarks while attending the commemoration of Constitution Day and the 78th Anniversary of the MPR/ANTARA PHOTO/Galih Pradipta

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) emphasized that the subsidies of electric vehicles provided by the Government are taken so that the investment climate in Indonesia is competitive.

President Jokowi admitted that he was aware of many parties who questioned the magnitude of the subsidy of electric vehicles in Indonesia.

"Yes, because other countries have all done that. For example, Thailand provides subsidies to electric cars (around) 68 (million rupiahs)," Jokowi said as quoted by ANTARA, Friday, August 18.

According to Jokowi, Indonesia must impose a large subsidy on electric vehicles, in order to increase investment interest.

Therefore, the government has imposed a subsidy of around Rp. 7 million for electric motorcycles and around Rp. 70 million for electric cars.

"If our subsidies are below (Thailand), all investments will not go there to Indonesia. This is the world that competes very strictly," said Jokowi.

The President emphasized that during the ongoing competition, Indonesia must be willing to make a gap and compare itself with competing countries if it wants to win competitions.

Indonesia, said the Head of State again, should not only look at themselves and must adjust to make it better than other countries.

"We must learn what other countries are doing and we must be adaptive. If competitors make policy changes, we must also, and our policies must also be better than them," said Jokowi.

Based on the Information System page for the Purchase of Two-wheeled Electric Vehicles (SISAPIRa), as of Thursday (27/7) there are still quotas of 198,791 units of electric motors that have not been distributed.

In fact, the government is targeting as many as 200 thousand new electric motors to be sold this year through the electric vehicle subsidy program.

The government has also prepared a subsidy budget for new electric motors and conversions that are valid during 2023-2024 of IDR 7 trillion.

The budget will be given to subsidies of 1 million new electric motorcycle units and conversions with a amount of Rp. 7 million per unit.

The implementation of the conversion of electric motors is a form of implementation of the mandate of Presidential Regulation Number 5 of 2020. The implementation of motorcycle conversion also aims to support the development of the KBLBB ecosystem or battery-based electric motor vehicles to reduce fuel imports, support reducing greenhouse gas emissions, including vehicle sound emissions.

The conversion program of fuel motorcycles into electric motorcycles has a target of 6 million units by 2030.