Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Like it or not, the government now wants to jump from developing conventional gasoline to electric cars. On the other hand, there is hybrid technology as an intermediary which is actually more attractive to old players, especially from Japan such as Toyota to Mitsubishi.
Evidence that the government is more pro-electric than hybrid is when Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati proposed an increase in the sales tax rate on luxury goods (PPnBM) for hybrid-type electric vehicles. Where the initial rate is planned 0% to 5%. Meanwhile, pure electric cars are already 0%.
In fact, Japanese investors disliked this from the start, who from the start invested trillions of rupiah in conventional car technology. Japanese investors want Indonesia not to jump directly to electric cars but gradually to hybrid technology. This was disclosed by the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan some time ago.
“Japan is angry with us. They asked why we didn’t consider developing a hybrid car first,” in a discussion with the North Sumatra ITB Alumni Association on its official YouTube account, Last September 2020.
The East Asian country is worried that this project will disrupt its automotive business that has been built for decades in Indonesia. The anger provoked accusations against Luhut of being too close to China. This is because the Lithium battery development project includes a company from China, namely CATL.
“And I was accused of being pro-China, I said what business is it pro-China. Why do we have to be hybrids when we can directly develop electric vehicles?”
Luhut’s belief in developing electric cars is because Indonesia has large reserves of natural resources. Indonesia is rich in nickel, which is the main component of electric cars.
“The key is lithium batteries and we have the largest reserves of nickel ore in the world. A few years ago, we started developing the downstream industry. [untuk nikel] but we can’t do it alone. We don’t have a complete technology application so we are in touch with China, “said Luhut.
Even though they had accused Luhut Pro of China, in the end several Japanese manufacturers joined in to invest. Toyota is committed to investing Rp. 28.3 trillion in Mitsubishi at Rp. 11 trillion and Honda with Rp. 5.2 trillion.
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