Indonesia has made a request to Geely Automotive Holdings, a Chinese car manufacturer, to assist in the development of a domestically produced electric vehicle (EV) by either 2025 or 2026, as revealed by a senior government minister on Tuesday. The minister, Luhut Pandjaitan, who oversees regulations related to natural resources and investments, explained that Geely has accepted this proposal. He stated, "I offered Geely the opportunity to manufacture cars in Indonesia, under an Indonesian brand, with research conducted in Indonesia, and they agreed."
This offer includes Indonesia providing the necessary nickel ore for EV battery production, but the research aspect must be led by Indonesia. Indonesia has been actively pursuing EV manufacturers to invest in the country by leveraging its abundant nickel reserves, a critical component in EV batteries. However, the success of these efforts has been mixed thus far.
In recent developments, VinFast, a Vietnamese EV company, announced its intention to invest approximately $1.2 billion in Indonesia in the long term, including the establishment of a production plant set to commence operations in 2026. Additionally, Indonesia has received investment commitments for EV production from China's Hozon New Energy Automobile and Japan's Mitsubishi Motors. Nonetheless, endeavors to secure investments from major global EV manufacturers such as Tesla from the United States and China's BYD Group, both of which are among the world's largest EV producers, have yet to materialize.
