According to foreign media reports, the Indonesian Ministry of Economy said on July 27 that Japanese automaker Toyota Indonesia plans to invest Rp27.1 trillion (about US$1.8 billion) in the country over the next five years so that it can produce electric cars there.
Indonesia aims to become a global hub for the production and export of electric cars by processing its rich laterite nickel ore and using it for lithium batteries. This comes after several global companies have announced major investments in Indonesia, including South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group, and LG New Energy, a subsidiary of the LG Group.
Toyota has invested Rp14 trillion in the country since 2019, Indonesia’s Chief Economy Minister Airlangga Hartarto said in a statement. airlangga said after meeting with Toyota Vice Chairman Shigeru Hayakawa in Tokyo a day earlier: “I believe that I believe there will be an increasing demand for electric vehicles, both four-wheelers and two-wheelers, in Indonesia and ASEAN countries.”
Airlangga said the country is currently seeking to reduce carbon emissions and aims to replace internal combustion vehicles by selling only electric cars and motorbikes by 2050. The country has also set a target of having 13 million electric motorbikes (including retrofitted vehicles) and 2.2 million electric cars on its roads by 2030.
In a statement, Airlangga said Toyota plans to produce several types of hybrid electric vehicles in the next four years. He also paraphrased a quote from Shigeru Hayakawa in this statement, “With this additional investment, we hope to let the Indonesian government know how serious we are about investing in electric vehicles.” Toyota declined to disclose details of the investment discussed in the meeting.
On 26 July, Indonesia also announced that Mitsubishi Motors plans to invest around Rp 10 trillion in the country between 2022 and 2025 to produce hybrid and electric vehicles. Indonesian President Joko Widodo is currently on a visit to Japan to boost economic ties between the two countries.
