Toyota Motor Corp will lead 50 trillion rupiah (US$3.6 billion) in investments that global carmakers have pledged to plow into Indonesia’s electric-vehicle programme in the next five years, Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto said.
The Japanese carmaker’s commitment — it plans to spend $2 billion to build hybrid vehicle plants in Southeast Asia’s largest car market — will help the country triple its total car exports to 1 million units per year by 2025, Hartarto told reporters on Thursday on the sidelines of the Gaikindo Indonesia International Auto Show.
Hyundai Motor Co plans to start producing conventional and electric cars in 2021, Jongkie Sugiarto, chairman at Indonesian Automotive Industry Association, said in an interview on Thursday but declined to specify how much the South Korean carmaker will be investing.
The investment pledges will help Southeast Asia’s biggest economy ensure that electric cars constitute a quarter of its total production, equivalent to about 750,000 units annually, by 2030. Indonesia is relying on its abundant nickel reserves — a key ingredient for making batteries — and extra perks to carmakers which use more local components, to become a regional manufacturing hub.