Indomobil Responds to Electric Motorcycle Conversion Proposal

BEIJING, KOMPAS.com - The government’s proposal to convert tens of millions of petrol-powered motorcycles to electric ones has drawn responses from industry players.

Andrew Nasuri, Director of Indomobil Group, which oversees the Indomobil E-Motor electric motorcycle brand, believes that both conversion and developing new electric vehicles share the same fundamental goal: supporting the energy transition.

According to Andrew, conversion is not an issue as long as the objectives are clear.

However, he reminds that there is a fundamental difference between converted vehicles and electric vehicles designed as EVs from the outset.

“No problem, whether it’s conversion or anything else, it’s fine,” Andrew said.

He gave an example that in the early stages of the electric vehicle trend, the conversion concept was also applied to cars. However, the results were deemed less than optimal due to the basic design limitations of the vehicles.

“Early converted cars existed, why weren’t they successful? Because the car’s architecture was made for ICE,” he said.

Along with technological developments, manufacturers began designing electric vehicles from scratch, including special platforms and architectures. This is what then makes the performance and efficiency of electric vehicles more optimal.

Andrew also highlighted the importance of planning in the conversion programme, from technical specifications to aspects of responsibility for the parties carrying out the conversion.

For information, the government previously proposed a programme to convert large numbers of petrol-powered motorcycles to electric ones, even said to potentially reach up to 120 million units.

This programme aims to accelerate the adoption of national electric vehicles, while reducing oil fuel consumption and exhaust gas emissions.