Indonesia looks to expand electric motorcycle subsidies

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Indonesia’s government is looking to restructure its policy for electric motorcycle subsidies, extending disbursements beyond low-income individuals.

The reason for this was the subsidy program’s low adoption rate, explained investment minister Bahlil Lahadalia. So far, the program has only disbursed 1% of its 200,000 target.

“Looking into the future, we might open up [the program] to the general public. We have considered implementing one national ID, one electric motorcycle,” he told Detik.

The government has a budget of 1.7 trillion rupiah (US$111.9 million) to subsidize battery-powered electric vehicles (KBLBB) in Indonesia, which covers 250,000 electric motorcycles.

Currently, the target recipients are MSMEs, beneficiaries of the KUR micro-credit program, recipients of the BPUM assistance program for micro-entrepreneurs, and low-capacity electricity consumers.

Indonesia is uniquely positioned for the electric vehicle industry, which its government recognizes. Aside from handing out consumption incentives, the Ministry of Industry is targeting the production of 600,000 fully battery-powered four-wheeled vehicles and buses plus over 2.4 million electric motorcycles by 2030.

These efforts were put in place to reduce emissions under Indonesia’s nationally determined contribution, a climate change mitigation plan.

As of February 9, 2023, there were about 128 million motorcycles in Indonesia, and 19.1 million cars, according to the National Police Traffic Directorate. Motorcycles make up about 87% of the vehicle population in the country.

See also: Mapping SEA’s electric vehicle players

A version of this article was originally published by Annissa Mutia on Tech in Asia Indonesia.

Currency converted from Indonesian rupiah to US dollars: US$1 = 15,181 rupiah