A US-made Tesla Model X electric car showcased at a Prestige Image Motorcars’ showroom in Pluit, North Jakarta, Indonesia (Photo: Jakarta Post) Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesia’s Industry Ministry is preparing measures to achieve the government's target of 20 percent of the two million cars produced by 2025 being electric, said Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto.
The country will conduct tests on several electric cars in December 2017 and run a pilot project. Activities related to technical work, including preparing machinery, batteries, energy sources and materials for electric car batteries are underway.
The Indonesian government has been considering using fuel cells, which use hydrogen, since Indonesia has large amounts of coal that could produce hydrogen.
Hartarto said fiscal incentives are an important part of the efforts to encourage electric car development because without incentives the prices of electric cars would be 30 percent higher than that of conventional ones.
Incentives could be given to the institutions that carry out research on electric car components like electric motors, batteries and power control units, he added.
The Indonesian Industry Ministry has worked with the Financial Ministry in this field and a decision on incentives is expected to be made by the end of this year. The incentives could be given in stages based on the commitments of the manufacturers.
Earlier, Indonesia piloted electric car Nissan Note e-Power, developed by Nissan Motor Indonesia.
The country will also work with the Republic of Korea (RoK) in producing lithium-ion batteries for electric cars and sending young chemical engineers for training in the RoK.-VNA
