Luhut: Foreign Investors Like Tesla Are Starting To Get Attracted, Indonesia Could Become A Big Producer Of Electric Cars

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. (Photo: Instagram @ luhut, pandjaitan)

JAKARTA - The Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan reiterated that Indonesia has great potential to become a producer of battery-based electric motor vehicles (KBLBB).

The huge potential, he continued, has also been looked at by many domestic and foreign investors.

"Indonesia's potential as a producer of battery-based electric motorized vehicles is enormous. This is evidenced by the presence of several foreign investors who have invested their shares to produce KBLBB," he said at the KBLBB Public Launching event held in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Thursday, December 17.

A number of foreign investors, including Hyundai, have invested in building a base for electric vehicles in Indonesia; BYD, which has started using electric bus vehicles; until a number of other foreign investors such as CATL and LG Chem, which Luhut mentioned, are interested in building a battery industry for electric vehicles in the country.

"Tesla has also expressed a strong interest in investing in Indonesia and they will make a visit next year in January," added Luhut.

Apart from attracting foreign investors, Luhut said that domestic interest in developing the battery-based electric vehicle industry also comes. Currently, there have been a number of electric motorcycle industries, Gesits, to electric buses produced by PT Mobil Anak Bangsa and PT INKA (Persero).

Luhut added that the implementation of KBLBB is expected to be a solution to the need for energy transformation that will encourage future economic recovery, including the issue of the trade balance deficit due to high fuel imports.

On the other hand, Indonesia is also considered to have a supply of electrical energy that has not been optimized for use. The abundant mineral resources are expected to be a supporting factor to encourage increased investment in the automotive sector.

"We must be able to unite all of this natural wealth in the spirit of creating added value for Indonesia to become part of the global supply chain for both the battery industry and the battery-based electric motor vehicle industry," said Luhut.

Likewise, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif said that Indonesia has the potential to develop the electric vehicle industry because the technology and components used are much simpler than conventional vehicles.

"This is a great opportunity for the domestic automotive industry. In addition, we have the potential to produce batteries which are supported by large reserves of nickel minerals as raw material," he said.

Currently, Indonesia Battery Holding (IBH) has been formed, which is a combination of several BUMNs, namely MIND ID, PT Pertamina, PT PLN, and PT Aneka Tambang which will later process nickel products from upstream to downstream to become electric vehicle battery products.