Singapore

SINGAPORE-BASED tech firm Grab is ramping up its electric vehicle (EV) plans in Indonesia through the launch of a roadmap to drive EV adoption, with support from the Indonesian government.

On Friday, it announced partnerships with automakers Hyundai, Astra Honda Motor and Gesits to launch four- and two-wheel electric vehicle pilots in the Greater Jakarta region.

Twenty new Hyundai Ioniq Electric cars will be used in the upcoming pilot project. Grab users will be able to choose to ride in the EVs in early 2020.

Hyundai, which invested in Grab last year, is Grab's first four-wheel EV partner in Indonesia.

The pilots come on the back of a US$2 billion investment by SoftBank into Grab in July in order to build the EV ecosystem in Indonesia, where the government has set a goal of reaching 2 million electric vehicles by 2025.

Ridzki Kramadibrata, president of Grab Indonesia, said: "The joint effort, which is in line with our commitment to accelerate digital infrastructure development in Indonesia, will help us to come up with solutions that will achieve higher cost efficiencies and spur more people to adopt EVs not just in Indonesia but also across the rest of the region."

Grab owns one of the largest fleets of electric vehicles in the region. In January, a pilot project saw 200 Hyundai Kona models plying Singapore roads. The firm is also partnering Singapore's energy utilities provider, SP Group, to use its public EV charging network.

In Indonesia, Grab inked an agreement with state-owned electricity provider Perusahaan Listrik Negara to co-build a network of EV charging stations. It also partnered Astra Honda Motor (AHM) and Gesits to launch EV bike pilots.

These pilots will test the viability of using EV bikes across Grab's ride hailing, food and parcels delivery business in the Greater Jakarta area.

Yoon Seok Choi, president director of Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Indonesia, said: "South-east Asia (has become) the fastest and (largest) emerging market for the EV industry over the other regions...

"We are looking forward to further collaboration with Grab and also the government to be able to accelerate the development of the EV industry in Indonesia."