Indonesia has reached an agreement with four Chinese carmakers, namely Hapco Neta, Wuling, Chery and Xiaokang, to turn Indonesia into a production center for exporting electric vehicles.

Indonesia's Minister of Industry Agus met with Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology Jin Zhuanglong during his visit to Beijing on Wednesday-Thursday (June 12-13) and reached agreements with the four companies. Agus said on Friday (14) that the four carmakers agreed to make Indonesia a production base for exporting right-hand drive electric vehicles to 54 countries, according to Indonesian media reports.

The Indonesian government has set a production target of 600,000 electric vehicles by 2030," the industry minister said. Companies have also agreed to use Indonesia as a production base for right-hand drive electric vehicles and export to 54 right-hand drive car-using countries." This agreement to use Indonesia as an export production center was reached during Industry Minister Arcus' visit to Beijing, China on June 12th-13th.

The industry minister explained that electric car company Nezha, through Indonesia's Nezha Automobile Manufacturing Co Ltd, plans to increase its domestic parts (TKDN) to 60 percent by 2025, with an annual sales target of 10,000 units.

At the same time, SAIC-GM-Wuling Motors is expected to be able to increase exports of EVs manufactured in Indonesia, thus making Indonesia's EV industry a production base for ASEAN and the world.

In subsequent talks with Chery Automobile, the company plans to conduct research on the production of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) in Indonesia. Sales of PHEVs are more popular in China because PHEVs burn fuel more economically than hybrid EVs/HEVs. In addition, the company has expressed its commitment to produce a total of 100,000 electric vehicles by 2030

The Minister of Industry further stated that SOKON through SOKONINDO is expected to carry out the development of electrified vehicles and support Indonesia's EV ecosystem through the introduction of a variety of new EVs as the Chinese manufacturer has a production capacity of up to 50,000 units.

He also said that the four Chinese manufacturing companies can utilize the investment incentives offered by the Indonesian government to invest.

Source: Equal Ocean