People Realize Electric Vehicles Can Reduce Air Pollution, But Are Still Reluctant To Buy

Illustration (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Jakarta City Transportation Council (DTKJ) Haris Muhammadun sees that many people are starting to be interested in owning electric-based vehicles.

Because the presence of electric vehicles can help reduce air pollution in the Capital City. This is also by the plan of DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan in realizing the Jakarta Langit Biru program.

"The public is well aware that electric transportation will reduce air pollution", said Haris on Wednesday, March 17.

Even though the interest in owning an electric vehicle is quite high, there are still many people who are hesitant to buy and use it.

Based on the aspirations of the community, DTKJ knows that there is still a sense of skepticism about the availability of supporting infrastructure and the selling price of these environmentally-friendly vehicles.

Soon, spare parts are also not available. Then, the electric battery charging time also takes quite a long time, which is about 2 hours.

"The long charging time will hamper people who have high mobility. Hopefully, there will be further improvements", he said.

Therefore, Haris gave five recommendations to the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government to accelerate the increase in the number of electric vehicles driving in Jakarta.

First, Anies needs to accelerate the use of electricity-based Transjakarta buses. "This is a trigger for people to become aware and switch to electric or pollution-free vehicles", said Haris.

Second, the acceleration of electrification infrastructure to support the needs of operating electric vehicles. Third, accelerate regulations governing incentives for electric cars or motorbikes in Jakarta.

"Incentives must be given, one of which is subsidies. It turns out that the price of electric vehicles is still very expensive, around IDR 1 billion, and only targets the upper-middle class. Not only odd-even incentives. It can be subsidized from the tax side or something else", he concluded.