Luhut Asserts Tesla Will Invest in Indonesia

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan stressed that the US-based automaker Tesla wanted to invest in Indonesia’s lithium battery materials. He received this interest during a visit to Tesla's headquarters on August 2, 2023.

According to him, Tesla's investment in the battery material industry was agreed upon as an agreement. He also said that the amount of Elon Musk's investment in the battery material industry will not be small.

“He (Elon Musk) has talked to his team many times and has agreed not to make a memorandum of understanding, but to go straight to the agreement, to make an investment here. I think the investment is also quite large,” Luhut said in his official statement, Friday, August 18, 2023.

Luhut said details of the investment will be conveyed by Elon Musk when he visits Indonesia. Elon Musk was scheduled to leave for Indonesia at the end of September or October 2023.

“Let’s just wait for Elon to come here, around late September or October this year,” Luhut added.

Previously, in a meeting with the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives (DPR) on Thursday, June 9, 2022, Luhut said that the Tesla team had visited Indonesia, particularly Morowali and North Kalimantan. 

Luhut said the Tesla team had been astonished to see the industrial zones in the two regions. “When the Tesla team came to Morowali and the Valley, they were incredibly amazed at what they saw. They claimed to have never seen anything like it outside of China,” he recalled.

DICKY KURNIAWAN

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