Indonesian President Joko Widodo has urged electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla to manufacture its cars, as well as batteries, in the country, in comments made to Bloomberg News on Thursday.
Jokowi, as the president is popularly known, said in an
interview that Indonesia wants a "huge ecosystem of electric cars",
rather than simply draw on its natural resources to make batteries. He also
said Indonesia was considering imposing a tax on nickel exports this year to
boost revenue. Officials have previously said this could come as soon as the
third quarter.
The president and senior government officials held meetings
earlier this year with Tesla's founder Elon Musk, during which they said they
had asked him to consider the Southeast Asian country as a car manufacturing
hub, on top of making batteries.
Tesla representatives did not immediately respond to a
request for comment. Indonesia's investment ministry did not respond to
questions regarding progress on the potential deal with Tesla.
Luhut Pandjaitan, a senior Indonesian minister overseeing
talks with Tesla, earlier this month told media the U.S. firm has struck deals
worth about $5 billion to buy nickel products from nickel processing companies
operating out of Indonesia's Morowali in Sulawesi island. The nickel materials
will be used in Tesla's lithium batteries.
Luhut added his ministry was still negotiating with Tesla,
but that Musk was "busy with domestic matters, regarding Twitter."
Social media company Twitter and Musk are currently suing
each other over Musk's attempt to walk away from his deal to acquire Twitter
for $44 billion.
During their meeting in May, Jokowi invited Musk to visit
Indonesia in November, when the country will host a leaders summit for the
Group of 20 major economies.
Companies that have invested or have announced their planned
investment in EV manufacturing in Indonesia include Japanese firms Toyota Motor
Corp and Mitsubishi Motors Corp and South Korea's Hyundai Motor Group.
SGMW Motor Indonesia, part of a joint venture of SAIC Motor
Corp Ltd, General Motors Co and Wuling Motors, has an EV assembly factory in
the resource-rich country. © Reuters
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