Indonesia Explores Cooperation with Ford and Hyundai for Electric Vehicle Battery Production

Indonesia wants the production of electric vehicle batteries with Ford and Hyundai. (photo: dock. Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian government is reportedly in discussions with Ford Motor Co and Hyundai Motor Co to build operations related to electric vehicles in the country. This was stated by the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs of Indonesia, Airlangga Hartarto, in a press conference in Washington, D.C. this week.

Ford, Indonesia's Vale nickel miner and China's Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt said in July they had signed a non-binding memorandum of cooperation to build a plant in Indonesia to extract nickel chemicals.

Airlangga said Indonesia was also in discussions with Hyundai and South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution regarding battery and EV investments.

"We have the raw materials for EV battery technology," Airlangga told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Indonesia's large supply of nickel, as well as its semiconductor production capacity, can support the US automotive industry," he said.

Moreover, the current US government continues to develop electric vehicles as an effort to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Even US President Joe Biden has promised hundreds of trillions of rupiah in credit for this business.

Even the United States government said it would buy as many as 60.000 units of electric cars that will replace conventional operational vehicles for lawmakers.