Formula E In Other Countries Leads To Losses, Why Does Anies Baswedan Want A 5-year Contract?

DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan when meeting with Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag in New York (Photo: Instagram @aniesbaswedan)

JAKARTA - The PSI faction of the DKI DPRD questioned DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan's desire to hold Formula E for a 5-year contract.

Because, of the 24 cities in other countries that have held Formula E since 2014, only 2 cities have successfully held Formula E events for 5 consecutive times, namely Berlin and Mexico City.

"This 5-year contract for five times the implementation of Formula E Jakarta is problematic, not only burdening the next governor's administration but the fact that many countries revoke contracts before 5 years because of losses," said DKI DPRD PSI faction member Justin Untayana in his statement, Thursday, September 9.

It is known that there are three cities that have terminated the Formula E contract even though it has only held it once, namely Miami, United States of America; Moscow, Russia; and Montreal, Canada.

The city of Miami hosted Formula E in 2015. However, they decided to terminate the contract after receiving protests that the Formula E track was being built over a wetland conservation area.

In the same year, the City of Moscow also terminated the contract due to licensing issues for road use, as well as logistics.

Then, the city of Montreal terminated the 2017 Formula E contract because of the waste of the city's budget. Then, a number of local MSMEs involved also admitted to losing because the number of viewers was far below predictions.

"This problem will also be experienced by Jakarta, and remember this was the condition before the COVID-19 pandemic. So, it is difficult to imagine that Formula E can be run 5 times in a row,” said Justin. Justin questioned why Anies initially claimed that Formula E would bring huge financial benefits to Jakarta, so he planned to hold it for 5 years.

"Learning from other countries, we can see that Formula E is a loss project, therefore we continue to collect the revised Formula E feasibility study which has not been submitted by the DKI Provincial Government and Jakpro. What's the point of doing it if you already know you're losing, if you're sure you'll make a profit, let's explain the results of the analysis. Where did it come from and how much was the profit?” he said.