Indika Partners With Foxconn And Thai Companies Want To Build Electric Vehicle Plants

JAKARTA Coal mining companies from Indonesia, PT Indika Energy and Taiwan-based Foxconn are now partnering to make electric vehicles in Indonesia. Both are also considering bringing Thailand's company as a third partner.

Arsjad Rasjid, President Director of Indika, is still refusing to name the Thai company or target a settlement of the partnership because of ongoing negotiations. But to Reuters, Wednesday, November 16 he said the three could invest in EV or EV battery production.

"We know the strongest automotive camps in ASEAN are Indonesia and Thailand, rather than competing, why don't we complement each other," he said in a video interview with Reuters during a meeting of G20 leaders.

In September, Indika and Foxconn launched a $2 billion joint venture to build electric vehicles, batteries and energy storage in Indonesia.

Arsjad said the effort is likely to focus on making electric buses in their initial production and may later move to build electric trucks.

Foxconn, Apple's biggest contractor to make an iPhone, also has a $1 billion joint venture with Thai energy group PTT to produce battery EVs. Meanwhile Foxconn also did not respond to email requests for comment.

According to Arsjad, Indika recently acquired a local metal company PT Perkasa Investama Mineral, which owns a bauxite mining business, to secure battery production materials. He added that they were looking for opportunities to buy bauxite mines or other nickel.

Like many other energy companies, Indika wants to diversify its business to reduce exposure to coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, to achieve its carbon neutrality target by 2050.

Indika is one of the top coal miners in Indonesia, which is also the largest coal exporter in the world.

Arsjad, who chaired the B20 meeting of business executives from the G20 economy, said businesses had recommended initiatives to leaders to accelerate the world's energy transition to renewable energy. This includes a way to balance short and long-term measures to accelerate a gradual reduction in the use of coal energy.