Volvo Indonesia's Path: Hybrids, EVs, and the Local Market

Jakarta — The electric vehicle market in Indonesia continues to develop dynamically amid the global automotive technology transition. In response to this trend, Volvo Car Indonesia has reaffirmed its commitment to staying on the electrification path. Volvo’s luxury SUV models remain a major draw in the domestic market.

Corporate Planning Assistant Manager at Volvo Car Indonesia, Ilham Suryo Aldianto, said that to date the company is still marketing hybrids, namely the XC90 and XC60. This step is taken not without reason. Volvo sees that the readiness of charging infrastructure and changes in Indonesian consumer habits make hybrid vehicles the most realistic solution for now, without prejudicing their long-term vision for pure electric vehicles.

“We will continue to bring hybrids, and in the future there will also be other hybrids in our line-up, such as extended-range. We also hope that this will come from global,” he told reporters in Jakarta, not long ago.

This multi-path strategy proves that Volvo does not simply abandon internal combustion engine technology combined with an electric motor. A range of options is provided so that consumers can choose the technology that best suits their daily mobility needs.

“However, so far for our progress in Indonesia, we do have electrification, namely mild hybrid, or plug-in hybrid, or EV,” he said.

Nevertheless, the global product development direction is in fact steering strongly toward the era of pure battery-powered vehicles or Electric Vehicles (EV). Some of the latest EV models have already been introduced globally and are only waiting to be brought to the local market.

“However, globally, currently the line-up is heavily focused on EV. But there is a product like the EX60 that has not yet arrived in Indonesia,” he added.