Bali Governor Made Pastika is gung ho about electric scooters.
In an event welcoming electric scooter test riders on a five-day journey from Jakarta to Denpasar, Pastika spoke of his desire that the alternative transport become the official vehicle of Bali’s provincial government.
“I really appreciate this vehicle. Moreover, Bali’s programming is to become pollution free. If this test vehicle is ready for production, we want to ask for this to be the vehicle of employees province-wide,” Pastika said on Saturday, as quoted by Merdeka.
Pastika said the province currently has around 11,000 employees, while alongside regency governments, employees total around 40,000.
“Can you imagine if just half the number of employees were using electric vehicles? And with Bali’s population of 4.2 million people using electric-powered vehicles, Bali will be sustainable and clean.”
But as great as it all sounds, it’s easier (and cheaper) said than done. Pastika would still apparently need to budget the appropriate funds to procure such a significant amount of new vehicles, in addition to monitoring the process of regulation and testing of new vehicles entering the market.
Pastika says, however, that he’s confident the electric motorbikes will pass product testing.
He even made a bold (perhaps overly so) claim that the introduction of electric scooters will help cut down on the presence of motorcycle gangs that have been “plaguing society.”
“It’s for certain that motorcycle gangs will disappear by themselves. Electric scooters can’t be used with loud mufflers,” Pastika said.
And of course, as he always does, the governor drew a link to the island’s tourism industry: “It certainly will also add to the development of tourism.”
Meanwhile, the Minister of Research, Technology and Higher Education, M. Nasir was also part of the welcome wagon of the e-scooter test drive from Jakarta to Bali.
Nasir says he hopes the electric scooters can be ready to go and hit the market with permits in 2017.
The scooters are the brainchild of Surabaya’s Insitut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) and Garansindo Electric Scooter ITS (Gesits).
Electric scooter riders pose with Bali’s governor on Nov. 12, 2016 after their trans-island trip from Jakarta to Denpasar.
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