| After losing out to Thailand in South-East Asia’s 1990s car manufacturing boom, Indonesia is determined to lead the region in electric vehicle production.
In July, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, commonly known as Jokowi, travelled to Tesla headquarters in Texas to meet with the billionaire. “The Indonesian government’s goal is to be the centre of production for cheap EVs for South-East Asia, and they are moving further and further along that value chain,” Mr Werner said.
It plans to do the same in electric vehicle production by processing limonite, the iron ore that can produce the sulphides for the EV battery market but was previously discarded because the leaching process was too costly, analysts say.Indonesia lost out to South-East Asian nations such as Thailand in the fight to secure production of combustion engine vehicles. But it has a huge natural advantage when it comes to EVs, Citi analysts wrote in a recent research note.
Tesla has not yet announced any concrete investment plans. Citi noted Hyundai had already begun EV production in Indonesia, as had China’s GM Wuling. Citi tips Japanese car companies to do the same.