President Joko Widodo seems to be a big fan of Elon Musk and his electric car company Tesla. He’s often held up Musk’s companies as models of global innovation and has often lamented the fact that Indonesia is too mired in internal conflict to pursue such goals, once saying “Others are talking about future fantasy cars, SpaceX, we … We are still caught up in unresolved issues.”
It’s clear that Jokowi would rather be focusing on future fantasy cars than issues like dealing with radical groups (and those who criticize his approach to banning them). It seems he’s trying to push his administration in that direction as well, having ordered his ministers to start drafting regulation supporting the development and infrastructure for electric cars in Indonesia as well as mulling a presidential regulation to speed up efforts further.
“The government is now drafting a regulation for electric cars in Indonesia, possibly using a Perpres (Presidential Regulation),” Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Ignasius Jonan said on the sidelines of a General Electric event at the Hotel Mulia yesterday, as quoted by Detik.
Jonan said a draft of the electric car Perpres is being developed by his department as well as the finance and industry ministries.
The goal, Jonan said, was for the Perpres to be issued this year. He said the draft was almost finished and the president would be consulted on it soon.
Tesla cars are actually already available in Indonesia, but as Jonan noted, their cost with import tariffs are over Rp 2 billion, making them far beyond the reach of ordinary consumers. However, he also noted that electric cars were quickly gaining ground in other countries and that Indonesia had to prepare now so that it would not be left behind.
