Challenges of Electric Motorcycle Conversion According to Conversion Workshops

JAKARTA - The government’s plan to convert petrol motorcycles to electric ones, targeting up to 120 million units, is deemed no easy task. From the perspective of conversion workshop operators, the biggest challenges stem from government regulations rather than just field execution. Founder of Bintang Racing Team (BRT), Tomy Huang, stated that his team has been involved from the outset in the national electric vehicle conversion programme. “We have been directly implementing the programme. If asked about challenges, the biggest ones have already passed, especially during the early period from 2020 to 2024,” he said. Tomy explained that when the conversion programme first launched, his team was busy building bureaucratic systems, conducting trials, developing feasible specifications, undergoing type testing, and seeking market opportunities. The initial phase was indeed challenging as many aspects had to be built from scratch, from regulations and technical readiness to public education. However, the current situation is considered far more prepared. “In my view, these challenges can be divided into two: those that can be addressed by the private sector and those based on regulations,” Tomy said. He elaborated that from the private sector side, businesses are already ready to support the conversion programme. Meanwhile, from the regulatory side, the remaining obstacles are not deemed too significant. “For regulations, particularly at the regional government level, there are actually no major issues. The programme has been running, with the latest in December 2024 reaching around 1,300 units converted. In fact, more than 1,000 units were done in less than a month,” he said. Nevertheless, Tomy highlighted the main problem that often hampers the programme’s acceleration, which is the slow execution of policies. “The issue that frequently arises is the government’s planning, which has been set since the beginning of the year, but its implementation is often delayed until the third or fourth quarter. So the challenge is the slow execution,” Tomy stated.