Indonesia's First Homegrown Electric Car Launched, Its Appearance Unexpected

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Long before the electric car industry developed rapidly as it does now, Indonesia actually launched its first electric car exactly 29 years ago.

The electric car was built by a team of students from the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Indonesia (UI) in July 1997. According to a report in the daily Kompas (25 July 1997), the vehicle already used four batteries with a capacity of 12 volts and 120 AH each. The car could travel up to 20 kilometres per hour on flat roads, while on uphill roads its speed was around 5 kilometres per hour. Its capacity could accommodate six people and it could last up to 75 minutes on a single charge.

Although still simple, the vehicle is called Indonesia’s first homegrown electric car. At that time, global electric car technology had actually developed quite far. Some global manufacturers, such as General Motors, had even produced electric cars with inductive charging technology and the ability to travel up to 100 kilometres.

However, this achievement is still considered important as it became the initial milestone in the development of electric cars domestically. Especially since it was made by students.

“To build the KAL, ten students led by Sabda Firman Jusuf completed it in nine months. They received assistance from PT Roda Naga Karya to finish the first prototype,” wrote Kompas.

Although it became a pioneer, the car still had many limitations and required further development. One of them was the addition of technology so that the vehicle could be recharged through electric charging stations.

The creation of that electric car was also inseparable from the DKI Jakarta Government’s plans at the time, which were considering electric vehicles as an alternative to public transportation replacing bemos or ojeks. Unfortunately, the technology available at that time was still not mature enough for mass production. The first electric car then slowly disappeared from the news.

The Rocky Road of Indonesia’s Homegrown Electric Cars

Outside of the electric car made by UI students, the government had long harboured ambitions that year to create electric cars to replace conventional ones.

Quoting Ridwan Arief Subekti in Opportunities and Challenges in National Electric Car Development (2014), at that time the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) through the Centre for Electrical Power and Mechatronics Research had conducted research on electric cars.

At that time, the government planned to dismantle the engines of conventional cars, such as the Timor and Kijang, and insert electric motors as the drive. In addition, LIPI had also produced designs and prototypes of cars for special purposes, such as golf carts, ambulances, and patrol cars.

Unfortunately, those efforts always faced rocky roads for several years afterwards.