Electric Vehicle Penetration Still Far from Minimum Threshold

JAKARTA - Amidst efforts to accelerate electric vehicles, achieving just 10% adoption is actually a major challenge in Indonesia. That figure is even described as the initial threshold in common practice for a new technology to begin gaining widespread acceptance without disrupting the existing industry balance. Stakeholder of the National Energy Council (DEN), Sripeni Inten Cahyani, stated that in the innovation adoption process, there is always an initial phase that must be passed before the technology truly matures in the market. She explained that electric vehicles are still considered a new technology amid the dominance of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Therefore, a certain threshold is needed for their adoption to start forming on a massive scale without causing market resistance. According to Sripeni, the 10% figure is considered a safe point because it will not immediately disrupt the ICE-based vehicle industry, which currently dominates. “This is a new thing. In a very large population, 10% actually does not disrupt. Concerns that the old industry will be disrupted are not yet relevant in the early stage,” she said. However, the biggest challenge lies in the massive scale of the vehicle market in Indonesia. With the number of vehicles reaching hundreds of millions of units, reaching 10% requires no small effort, both in terms of production, infrastructure, and public purchasing power. She exemplified that promoting just one million electric vehicles is still a big homework. Compared to the total vehicle population, that figure has not even reached 1%. “Moving one million alone is already big, but against the total population, the portion is still very small. That alone has not been achieved,” she said. Based on data from the Indonesian Automotive Industry Association, battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales in the first quarter of 2026 reached around 33,150 units. Meanwhile, throughout 2025, total electrified vehicle sales, including hybrids, reached around 175,000 units. That figure is still considered small compared to the national car market total, which is around 800,000 units per year. On the other hand, based on data from the Ministry of Transportation via the Type Test Registration Certificate (SRUT), the battery-based electric vehicle population in Indonesia has exceeded 274,000 units by mid-2025. That number includes various types of vehicles, from motorcycles, cars, to electric buses, and is estimated to continue increasing along with rising sales in recent times. On the other hand, looking at the overall vehicle population, the number of electric vehicles in Indonesia is currently estimated to still be in the hundreds of thousands of units. That figure is very small compared to the total national motorised vehicles, which exceeds 100 million units. Thus, the electric vehicle market share is currently estimated to still be far below 1% of the total vehicle population.