Prabowo Proposes Trade-In Scheme to Encourage Public Switch to Electric Motorcycles

President Prabowo Subianto has revealed the government’s plan to encourage the public to switch from petrol-powered motorcycles to electric vehicles. One of the schemes under consideration is a trade-in programme allowing owners to exchange their petrol motorcycles for electric ones.

Prabowo outlined several schemes to make electric motorcycle financing more affordable for the public. These include lowering instalment interest rates and working towards eliminating the need for a down payment on electric motorcycle purchases.

“We will lower instalment interest rates for the people, and we will try to make it so no down payment is required. So if there are still those who use petrol motorcycles, they will feel the difference themselves,” Prabowo said at the launch event for 20,000 national electric motorcycles in Cikarang, Bekasi Regency, West Java, on Thursday (13/8/2026).

According to Prabowo, the use of electric motorcycles has the potential to deliver substantial savings compared with petrol motorcycles. He stated that public expenditure on daily mobility could be reduced by at least 50 percent.

“We calculated earlier that using an electric motorcycle compared with a petrol motorcycle results in savings of at least 50 percent. Your daily mobility expenses can be reduced by at least 50 percent, and could even reach 70 percent,” he said.

On the other hand, Prabowo acknowledged that many people already own petrol-powered motorcycles. For this reason, the government is considering a scheme that would allow petrol motorcycle owners to trade them in for electric motorcycles.

“Don’t worry, we will have schemes in place. For those who have already bought petrol motorcycles, we will think about how they can do a trade-in. You hand over your old motorcycle and get a new one, with just a small additional payment,” he said.

He then made a light-hearted remark directed at the TNI-Polri ranks. According to him, TNI-Polri members would prefer to receive the motorcycles for free rather than through a trade-in scheme. “The TNI-Polri would prefer not to pay at all, he-he-he…,” Prabowo joked.