Source: Bisnis.com | August 8, 2024

The Chinese brand PT BYD Motor Indonesia has signaled that it will produce electric vehicle (EV) batteries in Indonesia.

PT BYD Motor Indonesia Head of Marketing & Communication Luther T. Panjaitan said that his party is currently developing a comprehensive study regarding local production of EV batteries.

“Yes, there are several considerations for batteries that we are also calculating and researching, because it’s a long road map, and it also requires a comprehensive study of demand,” said Luther on the sidelines of the BYD M6 Media Drive event in Bandung, Thursday ( 8/8/2024).

He further said, with BYD’s background, which is actually the largest battery producer in the world, the company is ready to produce EV batteries locally in Indonesia.

“It’s only a matter of research, studying the market. So when everything is ready and it is a necessity, of course we should be better prepared, because we are battery manufacturers,” he explained.

For your information, BYD started its business as a provider of rechargeable batteries in 1995. A year later, BYD entered the business as a manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries for cellphones. It was only in 2003 that BYD announced it was entering automotive manufacturing and developing passenger cars.

Currently, in Indonesia there are EV battery manufacturers, namely the Hyundai and LG Energy consortium, which are ready to operate electric car battery ecosystem factories in Cikarang and Karawang, West Java.

The first facility built was operated by PT HKML Battery. The total investment reaches US$1.1 billion, equivalent to IDR 15.6 trillion, with a battery cell production capacity of up to 10 GWh per year.

Apart from that, Hyundai is also building a battery packing facility located in Cikarang, West Java. PT Hyundai Energy Indonesia, which runs the packing production facility, has invested US$ 60 million, or around Rp. 900 billion.

Not only Hyundai, there is also PT Indonesia BTR New Energy Material as an anode producer for electric vehicle batteries in the Kendal Special Economic Zone (KEK), Central Java. The battery production facility was inaugurated by President Joko Widodo yesterday, August 7 2024.

PT Indonesia BTR New Energy Material is a subsidiary of BTR New Material Group, a company from China which is one of the main producers of anode components in the world. This company’s investment in Indonesia was carried out in two stages, with a value of US$478 million in the first stage and US$299 million in the second stage. Meanwhile, BYD Indonesia last month signed a memorandum of understanding to build a manufacturing facility with a capacity of 150,000 units per year in Subang Smartpolitan, West Java. The industrial area is managed by PT Suryabuat Swadaya (SCS), an entity of PT Surya Semesta Internusa Tbk (SSIA).