Positive reception for Australia-Indonesia EV partnership

Behyad Jafari, Electric Vehicle Council CEO, commented on the recent agreement with Australia and Indonesia to advance cooperation and collaboration on electric vehicle production.

During the annual Australia-Indonesia Annual Leaders’ Meeting, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and His Excellency Mr Joko Widodo, President of the Republic of Indonesia, welcomed a number of new commercial deals between Australian and Indonesian business across the health, mining and digital economy sectors and discussed the opportunities for both countries from the global transition towards electric vehicles on the road to net zero emissions.

Jafari welcomed the commitment from both nations to advance the development of an EV production ecosystem, labelling it “encouraging”.

“Australia has remained in the slow lane with EV uptake and manufacturing for too long — the change in tone since the federal election has been felt right across the industry and clearly recognised by our global peers,” he said.

According to Jafari, it is vital to create global partnerships and attract international investment to catch up with EV development.

“Collaborating with Indonesia is an exciting opportunity for our country to get involved in advanced EV battery production. It also shows that despite our international performance and reputation on EVs, countries in our region recognise our potential to shift gears and become an EV-manufacturing powerhouse that harnesses our rich resources and highly skilled workforce,” he said.

He called for the new vehicle efficiency standard being developed to be mandatory, saying Australia can’t be an EV manufacturing leader while it remains a “dirty car dumping ground”.

“Research shows motorists can save up to $10,000 over a vehicle’s lifetime if a strong, effective, competitive standard is adopted in Australia,” Jafari said.

Image credit: iStock.com/Marcus Lindstrom