Bandung Mayor Buys A Hyundai Ionic 5 Electric Car For IDR 850 Million From The Regional Budget

The official car for the Mayor of Bandung with electric power type Hyundai Ionic 5 is parked at Bandung City Hall, West Java, Friday (6/1/2022). (ANTARA/HO-Humas Bandung City Government)

BANDUNG - Bandung Mayor Yana Mulyana bought an electric car from the Regional Expenditure Budget (APBD) for her daily work activities as the leader of Bandung City, West Java.

According to him, this is one of the directives from President Joko Widodo who asked all regional heads to start switching to using environmentally friendly electric vehicles.

"Because hopefully, we can also push to improve the environmental ecosystem, to make it greener", Mayor Yana said at the Bandung City Hall, reported by ANTARA on Friday, January 6.

According to him, the car had arrived on Thursday, January 5, but he started using it on Friday. It was observed that Yana had started using her new vehicle for activities at Husein Sastranegara Airport, Friday morning.

Then he also admitted that he had tried to directly drive the electric car. He admitted that he was surprised because electric cars were very different from conventional gasoline-fueled cars.

"Yes, it's not automatic, because it doesn't have teeth, it's like a toy car", said Mayor Yana.

The electric car that was purchased using the regional budget of IDR 850 million was the Hyundai Ionic 5.

Even though she started to switch, Mayor Yana couldn't be sure that she would use the vehicle every time. Because he assesses that not all places have charging stations specifically for electric cars.

"It's up to 500 km, from 100 percent battery. That means we have to do the math, yes, if we want to leave town. There may be a rest area, but if we're not sure, well, back to conventional, gasoline", he said.

According to him, within the Bandung City Government, there is only one official car with electric energy, namely his official car. Meanwhile, according to him, the purchase of official cars with electric energy for other officials needs to adjust the budget.

"Hopefully we will prepare (charging stations). We will be rich at that time, electric motorbikes. We ask the factory to make it like that later so that it stimulates people to use electric vehicles", said Mayor Yana.*