Tesla teams to visit Indonesia to check on investment in EV components
Tesla, the U.S. automaker, will send delegations to Indonesia next month to discuss potential investment in a supply chain for its electric vehicles, the government said on Saturday in a statement.
President Joko Widodo has touted Indonesia's nickel reserves on a number of occasions, telling Reuters last month that "it’s very important because we have a great plan to make Indonesia the biggest producer of lithium batteries and we have the biggest nickel (reserves)."
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The president and Luhut Pandjaitan, the coordinating minister for maritime and investment, were on a call with Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday to discuss "investment opportunities from electric vehicles company Tesla in Indonesia," the ministry said.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Luhut told Reuters last month that "there is a really good chance" that companies will want to invest in Indonesian nickel processing to cut costs.
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Musk has said he is planning to offer a 'giant contract for a long period of time" so long as the nickel is mined “efficiently and in an environmentally sensitive way".
Indonesia is keen to develop a full supply chain for nickel at home, especially for extracting battery chemicals, making batteries and eventually building EVs.
