In mid-September 2022 Jokowi issued Presidential Instruction (Inpres) No. 7 of 2022 to encourage the use of electric vehicles among government agencies.
One of the Presidential Instructions contains an order to the Ministry of Industry to "accelerate the development of the main components and supporting components of the battery electric vehicle industry".
In line with the mandate of the Presidential Instruction, currently there are a number of large companies that will invest in the development of the electric vehicle industry in Indonesia, namely LG, CATL, and Foxconn.
This news was conveyed by Andria Buchara, Head of the Promotion Section of the Ministry of Investment/BKPM, during a public discussion held by the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF) virtually on April 20, 2022.
"Some of what we have highlighted as strategic projects are the integrated battery industry (in collaboration) with LG from South Korea, CATL from China, and Foxconn from Taiwan," Andria said at the event (20/4/2022).
According to Andria's explanation, the following are the investment plans of LG, CATL, and Foxconn in Indonesia as of April 2022:
- LG: US$9.8 billion integrated battery industry
- CATL: US$5.2 billion integrated battery industry
- Foxconn: The electric battery industry, the electric vehicle industry and ancillary industries valued at US$8 billion
"The agreement to secure raw materials for the LG and CATL projects, which are investors' concerns, was signed last week with the Ministry of SOEs and MIND ID," said Andria (20/4/2022).
However, Andria Buchara stated that there are still several stages that need to be passed to realize this investment project.
"What is our concern is the downstream sector, do not let this company only take raw materials, but the added value in the downstream sector is not built," said Andria.
"This battery (electric vehicle), as a component that is among the most expensive, the price (is expected) to drop significantly so that it becomes an accelerator for the development of electric cars and motorcycles as well as other ecosystems," he concluded.
