Earlier this month, it was reported that Tesla was close to a preliminary deal to set up of a production plant in Indonesia, and while nothing has yet emerged of it, Indonesian president Joko Widodo remains confident that Tesla will invest in a production facility in the republic, Reuters reports.
In its bid to get the US electric carmaker in, Indonesia has been offering the company plenty of incentives, including a concession to mine nickel. “I said to him that if you invest in Indonesia, I will give the concession of nickel,” Jokowi said. Other incentives include tax breaks and a subsidy scheme on EV purchases to build a market for Tesla in the country, he said.
Saying that his ministers were finalising the subsidies, Jokowi said he was “confident” Indonesia had the edge over other countries Tesla might be considering for investment, because it has the largest nickel reserves and a big domestic market.
Jokowi said it was up to Tesla to take up the offer to mine nickel, adding that the country is open to investment in the EV battery and electric car supply chain as an initial step. “If they want to start from EV battery production, it’s OK,” he said.
The country has been wooing Tesla to invest in battery and car manufacturing since 2020. Initial talks about a ‘potential investment‘ came to light in October that year, with Jokowi stating the following month that a high-level team would be sent to meet with the EV maker’s top executives.
In February 2021, the republic revealed that it received an investment proposal from Tesla with a focus on EV battery manufacture. Plans for a battery factory in Indonesia were not to be, however. Despite this, Jokowi’s desire for Tesla to produce its cars, not just batteries, in Indonesia remained unabated, and in April last year, Indonesia resumed talks with Tesla for EV and battery manufacturing.
The Indonesian president also personally stepped into the wooing process, speaking to Elon Musk twice, the first in person when he visited the SpaceX facility in Texas last year and later, via a telephone call.
Indonesia isn’t the only country in the game. The report by the news agency adds that South Korea, Canada and Mexico are also vying for Tesla to invest in manufacturing. Earlier this week, a spokesman for Mexico’s president said that the company was considering setting up an assembly plant near a new Mexico City airport.
Analysts have said Mexico could have an edge to win the Tesla investment because of its proximity to the carmaker’s main market, which is the US, and because vehicles built there could qualify for Biden administration consumer tax credits. If Tesla were to invest in battery production in Indonesia, it would be its first such facility in Asia.
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Those ketar ketir people will go crazy if Tesla withdraw
All self proclaimed local pipu here are actually castaways from there too, myself a Bugese..
Where did you get that from? Malay is from Malayan Peninsular(Proto-Malay) trickles down to several others. Go learn more about actual Malay history. And Who cares if you are bugese? Not my business
not really bro. Orang asli/asal the real bumi putras of this land… not malays, and certainly not those pendatang Patani’s up north stealers and timber cutter of Org asli aborigines land
Go dig human migration history. If consider 40kya then we(every homo sapiens) are Pendatang to this region. So stop talking who is what as we are all same species
Ahhahaha. That is how non bumis always says. Tryna cover up their bitterness and hate towards Malays by using orang asli issues. Lame as f
I will definitely kill myself if i came from china
but elon want robots not slaves i mean workers.
Where is our PM? Where are the promises to bring more investment to Malaysia? What a weak government.
And when many large corporations left Malaysia, i wonder it happen during which PM ya?
Why is this become a huge concern to you? Because it is Tesla? Lmao
This all the fault n failure of previous 17bulan PN gomen.. pkp Darurat lockdown Rakyat suffered n ekonomi doomed. say NO more to PN…
Do you think your people can buy expensive Tesla as they can buy cheap Toyota? If Tesla is setup in Indonesia for export market, who are their targetted customers? SEA people? Business decision may not be wise.
pls educate urself. 5% of indonesian rich is already 14 million ppl, almost half poulation of malaysia. u think they’re really poor hah? meanwhile u drive ur lame lousy old perodua everywhere feel jealous. sick
Tesla R&D should be here, no need for assembly and manufacturing.
We Malaysians just feeling jealous
I think many Malaysian will ask, why not invest in Malaysia???
All speculation but I think the deal will be very one sided (towards Tesla) and the cost/benefit ratio will be very high, too high.