EV in Indonesia–Execution is the Key

Indonesia is rapidly becoming the citadel of Electric Vehicles (EV) in the Region. The media has been abuzz with news of leading car manufacturers like Hyundai and Toyota exploring to set up their EV factories in Java and, of course, the on-again-off-again news of Tesla setting up their EV battery facility locally.

- Raj Kannan

While EV is not a new phenomenon, its exponential growth in the last decade is. EVs have been around since the mid-19th century, and in fact, until 1900, the land speed record was actually held by an EV. With the introduction of internal combustion engines for automobiles, EVs died out until their revival with the advent of modern lithium batteries. Plug-in hybrids EVs (PHEV) grew, followed by Battery EVs (BEV), which led to the introduction of battery swapping stations. By 2014, there were half a million plug-in EVs globally, growing to a million units two years later, and by the end of 2020, the combined sales of EVs (both PHEV and BEV) globally hit 10 million units, the majority of these were sold in China and Europe.