Government targets up to 6 million motorcycle conversions to electricity per year

Jakarta — Indonesian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Bahlil Lahadalia said the government is preparing steps to accelerate the programme to convert motorcycles from petrol to electricity, including raising the annual target to 6 million. Lahadalia noted that the motorcycle-conversion programme has been under way for several years with an annual target of around 200,000 units. He said the government would push the target higher because there have been many new technological breakthroughs. ‘But now there is technology, and it is cheaper. So perhaps around 4, 5, up to 6 million (conversions per year). The more this proceeds, the cheaper it becomes,’ he told reporters at the Presidential Palace complex in Jakarta on Thursday. Regarding the possibility of subsidies as previously provided, Lahadalia said the government is preparing a suitable formulation. He added that the support scheme will be discussed further by the newly formed task force (satgas) to accelerate the implementation of clean energy. ‘We will seek a good formula. The Satgas was only announced today. After this, we will proceed with the Satgas’s work so that the planning is truly precise,’ he said. In the same briefing, Lahadalia announced that the government will form an Energy Transition Task Force to accelerate the programme’s implementation, including the conversion of conventional motorcycles to electricity. This Satgas is established to accelerate the conversion from the 120 million conventional motorcycles to electric motorcycles. President Prabowo Subianto has targeted the programme to operate at maximum capacity within three to four years, or even sooner.