Hanoi (VNA) – Indonesia has suggested US electrical vehicle (EV) producer Tesla to build an EV battery plant in the country, Indonesia's coordinating Minister of investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said on May 20.
Earlier, CEO of Tesla (TSLA.O) Elon Musk met with President Joko Widodo in Indonesia’s Bali when they attended the World Water Forum, the minister told reporters.
Indonesia wants to build industries that exploit its natural resources such as nickel. Indonesia has the world's largest nickel reserves and this is also an important material for EV batteries and solar panels. Indonesia supplies 40% of the world's nickel and has the potential to increase this share to 75% by 2030.
The Indonesian government has set a target of producing 600,000 electric vehicles by 2030 and expects that by 2027, electric vehicles and related components made in Indonesia must have localisation rate of 60%.
Billionaire Musk, who owns both Tesla, SpaceX and social platform X, is in Bali - a resort island of Indonesia to deploy the Starlink satellite internet service.
Pandjaitan said Widodo also asked Musk to consider investing in an AI centre in the Southeast Asian country and for SpaceX to build a launchpad in Biak island in Indonesia's Papua province, an offer the government has made before./.
