Bahlil Targets Electric Vehicle Battery Factory In Karawang To Can Production By 2022: Patents As Mr. Luhut Says

Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Investment Minister/Head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), Bahlil Lahadalia, targets the production of electric car batteries to start in May 2022. As is known, Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution have officially laid the first stone or groundbreaking for the construction of a battery factory for electric vehicles in Karawang, West Java.

"In May 2022, God willing, it will be produced at the latest. So the car has been patented, the term for the Coordinating Minister (Maritime and Investment) is to patent the item. But God willing, we will produce it", he said during the groundbreaking activity for the electric vehicle battery industry in Karawang, West Java, Wednesday, September 15th.

Furthermore, Bahlil said the groundbreaking was a follow-up to President Joko Widodo's (Jokowi) directive to encourage investment in electric vehicles. As for this initial stage, the Hyundai consortium will invest around IDR 21 trillion to build an electric vehicle battery cell factory.

"Alhamdulillah, the first phase of the electric car that we signed in November 2019 began construction in 2020. Despite the COVID pandemic, the total investment was 1.5 billion US dollars or IDR 21 trillion", he said.

For your information, the Hyundai consortium consists of the Hyundai Motor Company, KIA Corporation, Hyundai Mobis, and LG Energy Solution in collaboration with PT Industri Battery Indonesia or Indonesia Battery Corporation (IBC) as the holding of four SOEs, namely PLN, Pertamina, MIND ID, and Antam.

Bahlil said that the battery cell facility is planned to have a production capacity of 10 Giga Watt Hour (GWh), which will later supply electric vehicles produced by Hyundai.

"This is only part of the 9.8 billion US dollars because this is how to reverse thinking, not the upstream first, but the downstream that we play first", he said.

On that occasion, Bahlil promised that the construction of the factory would be reserved for local workers. Meanwhile, the absorption of foreign workers, according to the provisions, will only be given to certain positions or certain skills that cannot be filled by local workers.

"In the MoU to them (investors) that the widest possible employment opportunities are for domestic workers, not for foreign workers. Foreign workers are allowed as long as they meet special specifications and certain positions", he said.