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Have you noticed an uptick in electric vehicles in your city too? Here in Manila, a BYD Atto is no longer the novelty it once was.
In turn, EV charging stations have become a common sight in our malls. This service has been free of charge for the longest time – a perk offered by many EV importers in the Philippines to increase adoption rates.
Whether this privilege is enough to motivate consumers to purchase EVs is a different story altogether, given that in other parts of the world, even financial incentives have not moved consumers to switch to EVs.
In this week’s Deep Read, we take a closer look at how European car manufacturers are struggling to convince locals to open their wallets for the more expensive battery-operated cars. Some say that to accelerate growth, the industry has to draw inspiration from China, which heavily incentivized EV purchases and worked toward increasing its capacity in EV battery manufacturing.
In Indonesia, the government has been offering a discount of up to US$400 for the purchase of a two-wheeler (2W) EV. But as this month’s Big Story underscores, the subsidies have not been as effective as anticipated.
As governments across the world try to transition out of Big Oil, these challenges may become more prevalent.
— Elyssa
THE BIG STORY
Subsidies fuel Indonesia’s 2W EV growth, but at what cost?
Image credit: Made by Tech in Asia using Midjourney
Industry sources have shared with Tech in Asia that some 2W EV brands in Indonesia rely on fully knocked-down kits from China or pre-made vehicles requiring basic assembly. Still, units made from these kits qualify for subsidies, which only require that a vehicle has 40% of its materials, components, and labor used in production be sourced locally.
Some Indonesian drivers have already complained that these EVs cannot deliver the same reliability that their gas-powered counterparts could. In the hilly parts of Bandung, the capital of Indonesia’s West Java, EV users find their units faltering. Some have even witnessed their EVs’ batteries bursting into flames.
DEEP READ
What can convince more consumers to buy EVs?
TRENDING NEWS
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