Various brands of electric vehicles have already joined the traffic in Indonesia. The population of these vehicles continues to grow and expand. Likewise, the infrastructure for public electric vehicle charging stations is increasing in number.

Data from PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) or the State Electricity Company records that by early 2024, they had built 1,124 units of Public Electric Vehicle Charging Stations (SPKLU), 1,839 units of Public Electric Vehicle Battery Exchange Stations (SPBKLU), and 9,558 Public Electric Charging Stations (SPLU) spread across Indonesia.

That's just what PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) owns, not to mention what private or individual entities are endeavoring. The proliferation of electric charging stations in Indonesia is certainly based on the confidence that the population of electric vehicles will continue to grow. This means that the electric vehicle business pie is very lucrative and has the potential to grow.

Based on the above data, electric vehicle business players are willing to bet on making significant investments in Indonesia, one of them being the world's largest nickel producer, Tsingshan Holding Group Co. They are set to build an electric vehicle battery factory in Indonesia.

The battery business unit of Tsingshan Holding Group Co. will become the newest investor from China. The investor is ready to add value to mineral mining commodities.

The business unit of Tsingshan Holding Group Co., REPT BATTERO Energy Co., will build its factory near Tsingshan's facilities in Teluk Weda, Halmahera, and is planned to be operational next year.

Choosing a location close to Tsingshan's facilities is also aimed at enabling the company to utilize existing raw materials and infrastructure.

So far, China has been one of the largest investors in Indonesia, having spent at least US$7 billion last year alone.

Most of the investments made have been used to build processing facilities for abundant raw materials in the country.

This is in line with Indonesia's ambition to become a global electric vehicle development hub. It's worth noting that China is the country that sells the most electric cars in the world.

"Labor and electricity costs in Indonesia are similar to those in China. Tsingshan has comprehensive infrastructure, and its extensive experience in this country will help in budget estimation. We also have a good relationship with the Indonesian government that supports the new energy sector," said Jason Hong, General Manager of REPT AS, as quoted by a foreign media outlet on Wednesday (March 27, 2024).

Not only the presence of manufacturers grows with the development of the electric vehicle ecosystem. The state-owned enterprise, PT Aneka Tambang Tbk. (ANTM) or Antam sees other opportunities from the growing electric vehicle business.

They plan to build an industrial park for battery ecosystem development. The target industrial park is expected to be realized in 2025. The industrial park in question is a nickel smelter with high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL) and rotary kiln electric furnace (RKEF).

Antam's President Director Nico Kanter said that their company is a part of the upstream side in the battery development consortium conducted by Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. (CATL), so the construction of smelters with nickel combustion technology (RKEF) and HPAL in the country must be done immediately.

HPAL (High Pressure Acid Leaching) technology is the processing and purification of limonite nickel by dissolving it in a high-pressure or high-temperature container (autoclave) and then extracting the concentrate solution to obtain purer minerals, namely nickel and cobalt.

"CATL has its consortium, next year we have to build RKEF and HPAL [smelters] in its industrial park," he added.

The facility will be built with the concept of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG). One of them is the plan to use gas as energy for the High Pressure Acid Leaching (HPAL) smelter.

"For HPAL, maybe 60 MW of it will use gas, but it still needs to undergo a feasibility study regarding its economics, but the project will not be reduced, we want green nickel because ESG demands it," he said.

Meanwhile, the electric car battery factory built by Hyundai in collaboration with LG Energy Solution Ltd. will start operating in April 2024. The facility has received investments worth Rp21.7 trillion.

Related to this, Bahlil Lahadalia, the Investment Minister said that the Hyundai-LG partnership will inaugurate a battery factory with an installed capacity of 10 gigawatt-hours (GWh) next month.

The construction of the factory is even claimed to have entered the stage of adding 10 GWh. As for LG, they recently showed their commitment to increase the installed capacity of EV battery production in Karawang by 20 GWh, from the installed capacity.

Translator: Ratna Puspa Merdika