Observer Says Electric Vehicles Incentives 'Not Properly Targeted'

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Djoko Setijowarno, the Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI) deputy chair for Regional Strengthening and Development, said that the government's electric vehicle incentive program is not aimed at the right targets. He also questioned the success indicators of the program.

"This program will be implemented, so of course there needs to be indicators of its success and use. Which agency will have the responsibility to measure them?"  told Tempo.co on Monday, May 29.

Djoko also said that Indonesia had not taken notes and learned from Europe in its EV policymaking.  In Europe, the EV policy was enacted after public transportation had improved. Europe also does not have a target for electric motorbikes there.

"There is no motorcycle policy like in Indonesia because they understand very well that the risk of riding motorbikes is higher than driving cars," he said.

Indonesia's electric motorbike incentives policy is aimed at MSMEs. However, Djoko said that most MSMEs do not need electric motorbikes. What they need is capital to grow their business, market access, and human resource (HR) training.

"Today, Indonesian MSME actors already have motorbikes, even more than one motorbike in each household. Even people living under bridges already have motorbikes. This is clearly not on target," he said.

Djoko suspects the government's actual goal of providing this incentive is to help the motorcycle and electric car industries, which have already invested and started production, but whose share is still very small. He even said that the program has no rules or obligations for EV buyers to relinquish ownership of their oil-fueled vehicles.

In the end, Djoko said that this incentive will end up being enjoyed by the rich, and will actually lead to traffic jams in urban areas. He believes that the incentive will cause traffic chaos and contribute to the increasing number of traffic accidents.

Dicky Kurniawan

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