Sylvia KlimakiStarting with hybrid vehicles, Indonesia’s coordinating ministry for maritime affairs said in Jakarta. “From 2019 to 2023, we will progressively increase our investment to 28.3 trillion rupiah ($2 billion),” Toyota president Akio Toyoda was quoted as saying in a statement released by the ministry on Thursday.
The Japanese carmaker said this month that it aimed for half its global sales to be from electric vehicles by 2025, five years ahead of schedule, and will tap Chinese battery makers to meet the accelerated global shift to electric cars.
The deal was agreed at a meeting in Osaka on Thursday between Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan and Toyoda.
“Because the Indonesian government already has an electric vehicle development map, Toyota considers Indonesia a prime EV investment destination,” Toyoda said in the statement.
He said Toyota would follow the government’s EV plan by investing in stages, starting with the development of hybrid vehicles.
Monet, the self-driving car joint venture of Toyota and SoftBank Corp, separately told Reuters in June it plans to begin operating in Southeast Asia next year.
BATTERY HUB
Indonesia, the region’s largest economy, has plentiful reserves of nickel laterite ore, a vital ingredient in the lithium-ion batteries used to power EVs, and has been making a push to attract foreign carmakers.
Benjamin Wallace-Wells
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