The latest Indonesian electric car prototype stalled twice last week during a test drive by State Enterprise Minister Dahlan Iskan. But the much-touted program to make Southeast Asia’s largest economy a hub for eco-car production is just revving up.
The moody battery-powered car, which was built by a mechanical engineer named Dasep Ahmadi, is the latest in an ongoing quest for a locally-designed and produced vehicle in a country where Japanese brands have dominated the auto market for decades.
Mr. Iskan, a media mogul and one of the most popular government ministers thanks to his folksy style, says electric cars are the future for Indonesia. He said the country could start producing environmentally-friendly electric cars next year.
“If the infrastructure is ready, we can start mass producing the car with a capacity of 5,000 units per year,” he told the state-run Antara news agency. “We should now focus on quality, quality and quality. It’s my hope that quality will no longer be a concern in August and after that, we can talk about the cost.”
Last year, a handsome sport utility vehicle prototype built by vocational high school students in a small town in central Java sparked the imaginations of Indonesians. The mayor of Solo – Joko Widodo who is now running to become governor of Jakarta – used it as his official vehicle, before being told it wasn’t safe.
Other government officials and politicians quickly jumped on the bandwagon back then praising the car – dubbed the “Esemka” from the Indonesian pronunciation of the vocational school’s initials – as an example of Indonesian ingenuity. Few pointed out that the big black SUV was cobbled together using mostly Japanese parts.
There were similar calls to mass produce the Esemka, despite analysts warning that it was impractical. For the electric car project, Mr. Iskan has appointed the state-owned weapons manufacturer PT Pindad to produce cars starting next year. He has also requested the state-owned energy company PT Pertamina to build charging stations at its gas pumps.
Analysts and car company executives, however, say an electric powered vehicle would be too expensive to produce in Indonesia. The most important and expensive parts of the cars, the big batteries, would have to be imported because Indonesia doesn’t make them. Meanwhile, many people suspect few Indonesians would be willing to pay the higher sticker price that usually comes with a hybrid or electric car.
“There are a lot of things that need to be done before it can be mass produced. Many of the components need to be imported,” said Prawoto, an expert on transportation at the government-run Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. “It’s more environmentally-friendly, but it costs more to produce.”
With a population of about 240 million and a growing middle class, Indonesia has become a darling of global car manufacturers. Domestic car sales rose 45 per cent in June to a monthly record of 101,743 cars from a year earlier.
The engineer that designed and built the electric car prototype, Mr. Ahmadi, is confident his cars will work, saying even Toyota Motor had troubles with its earliest models.
“Toyota was mocked initially because their cars broke down, but now they are successful,” Mr. Ahmadi told the Kompas daily newspaper. “It will be challenging, but I’m sure we can do it because no one else is marketing an electric car yet.”
Nissan Motor Company, Mitsubishi Motors and Ford Motor Company have all produced all-electric cars, with the Nissan Leaf being the market leader since it went on sale in 2010. Toyota is expected to offer a range of electric cars soon.
Mr. Ahmadi, who owns a machinery company, said his car is powered by a 20-KwH-electric motor and a lithium ion battery imported from the United States. It can travel 130 kilometers after a charge of 4 to 5 hours. While half of the car’s components are imported, government incentives could reduce the cost of imported parts, he said.
State Enterprise Minister Iskan test-drove the car from its garage on the southern outskirts of Jakarta to the central city last week and invited journalists to cover the event. But the car stalled because it ran out of battery.
