Boosting The Application Of EBT, Indonesia Needs To Encourage Japan To Turn Into An Electric Vehicle Manufacturer

JAKARTA - Executive Director of the ReforMiner Institute, Komaidi Notonegoro, said that the two keys to the application of new and renewable energy (EBT) are electricity and automotive.

As long as Japan persists in producing fossil fuel cars, it will be difficult for Indonesia to implement NRE.

Currently, continued Komaidi, Japan has not yet entered the electric car market. In fact, China and Korea are the first to look at the potential of EBT.

However, the problem is that Japan's dominance in the Indonesian market is quite large.

"Japan might be better in the automotive context, how then in the future Japan will move to its automotive industry, because so far they have not entered the electric car market. It is China and Korea first. Meanwhile, their dominance in Indonesia is quite large. As long as they persist in Conventional technology, it is relatively heavy for Indonesia," he said in an official statement, Jakarta, Wednesday, July 27.

Therefore, according to Komaidi, Indonesia must encourage Japan to turn into an electric car manufacturer to boost the application of EBT.

Furthermore, Komaidi reminded, in addition to attracting foreign investors, the government also needs to pay attention to the sustainability of the automotive industry as a whole.

"Then the fate of cars that already exist, including supporting infrastructure, such as factories, workshops, and employees, I don't think this is simple homework, just campaigning to move to EBT, there are other aspects that have not been touched so far," explained Komaidi.

Previously, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto met with a number of high-ranking automotive companies in Japan and pocketed a number of trillions of rupiah investment commitments for environmentally friendly vehicle products.

"I believe that the demand for electric vehicles, both four-wheeled and two-wheeled in Indonesia and in the ASEAN region in the future will continue to increase. Indonesia can be used as an industrial base for electric vehicle (EV) production to be marketed in the ASEAN region and in Indonesia itself," said Airlangga.

As is known, the world is starting to shift from producing fossil fuel vehicles to electricity.

This is in line with Indonesia's energy transition policy which is committed to achieving Net Zero Emissions (NZE) by 2060 and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of reducing carbon emissions by 29 percent by 2030.

Public Transportation

Meanwhile, transportation observer Djoko Setijowarno appreciated the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government (Pemprov) for providing a number of electric-fueled TransJakarta buses.

According to him, this initiative can be used for other regions in Indonesia.

"The Jakarta map is not so pessimistic, the human resources are good, the planning is good and there are many who supervise. In that area, they don't care much, even though it can be imitated, the center must push it to the regions," he said.

Currently, there are 11 Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) services available throughout Indonesia.

In Surabaya, there will be two corridors using electric buses, as well as Bandung.

"So, local governments can start using electric buses via this BRT," he said.

According to Djoko, the existence of proper public transportation is very important in the mobilization of people.

Users of private vehicles can switch to public transportation to reduce emissions.

The government should also be more active in disseminating information and electric car services.

"How is it used, meaning that later use is mitigation, for accidents, information on using batteries is easy or not, studies on the provision of charging stations, how many hours for households, it needs to be socialized, don't use gas like we used to, it turns out to be a failure because the SPBG is far away," Djoko said.

He reminded that the existence of electric transportation is not new in Indonesia.

In the Asmat highlands, people are already using electric cars.

"This means that the opportunity and the will is there, it's just a matter of implementation in the field," he said.