Pushing the Electric Car Ecosystem, Smelters That Are Not Green Energy Oriented Will Be Restricted
JAKARTA - The Minister of Investment or Head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Bahlil Lahadalia said the government will limit the construction of purification facilities (smelters) that are not oriented toward green energy products to boost the electric car battery ecosystem.
"In the future, we will place restrictions on the construction of smelters that are not green energy-oriented", said Bahlil Lahadalia as quoted by Antara, Friday, January 13.
Bahlil explained that currently many smelters are producing Nickel Pig Iron (NPI) which is included in the pioneer category. On the other hand, reserves of nickel ore as a raw material are limited, so its use is prioritized for products with a higher added value.
"Now we are pushing more with downstream, where the added value can be up to 80 to 100 percent. That's what we will do", said Bahlil Lahadalia.
In a limited meeting regarding the ecosystem for the development of electric cars and the electric car battery industry, Bahlil said that currently, the ecosystem had started to work.
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The construction of the battery component factory, namely the cathode precursor by LG in Batang, will start in the first half of 2024. The South Korean company invested US$9.8 billion in the production of electric battery components from upstream to downstream.
The government continues to realize the electric vehicle ecosystem, he said, because electric vehicles are a solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save on fuel subsidies that have been a burden on the state budget.
Until December 2022, users of Battery-Based Electric Motorized Vehicles (KBLBB) or Electric Vehicles (EV) are still relatively lower than vehicles that use Internal Combustion Engines (ICE).
As of December 2022, sales of electric motorbikes reached 15 thousand units, while electric cars were 8 thousand units. This figure is still far from the total sales of ICE vehicles of up to 6.5 million motorbikes and 1 million cars, according to data from the Indonesian Motorcycle Industry Association (AISI) and the Association of Indonesian Automotive Industries (Gaikindo) in 2019.