FILE PHOTO: A Gojek taxi driver charges the battery of his motorcycle at a charging station in Jakarta, Indonesia, Aug 28, 2020. (Courtesy of Gojek / Handout via REUTERS)
JAKARTA: Indonesia only wants to sell electric cars and motorcycles by 2050 to replace vehicles with internal combustion engines, the country’s energy minister said on Monday, as the Southeast Asian country wants to reduce its CO2 emissions.
All motorcycles sold from 2040 onwards will be electrically powered, while all new cars sold from 2050 onwards will be electric vehicles (EVs), said Arifin Tasrif.
Over the past decade, the country with the fourth largest population in the world has sold an average of 6.5 million motorcycles per year and about 1 million cars.
“We do not have a policy to stop (use) internal combustion engines, only the use of electric vehicles with incentives,” said Dadan Kusdiana, Director General for Renewable Energy at the ministry.
The country had more than 15 million cars and 112 million motorcycles on its roads in 2019, data from the Indonesian Association of the Automotive Industry showed.
Indonesia is grappling with suffocating air pollution in urban areas, with the traffic-plagued capital Jakarta consistently among the most polluted cities in the region.
A move towards electric vehicles also supports Indonesia’s ambitious plans to become a global manufacturing hub as the country ramped up processing of its rich supplies of nickel laterite ore used in lithium batteries.
Indonesia’s native ride-hailing giant Gojek said in April that the company would turn every car and motorcycle on its platform into an electric vehicle by 2030.
Jakarta also announced a goal this year to make the country climate neutral, including a plan to shut down all coal-fired power plants by 2056.
