Jakarta. Bakrie & Brothers business group is kicking its electric bus business into high gear with 30 units set to become fully operational in the capital city as soon as next week.

The company said its EV project will help Indonesia slash emissions from transport, starting with the city-owned bus operator TransJakarta’s fleet.

The group’s subsidiary Bakrie Autoparts is pursuing the electric bus market through its business entity Vektr Mobiliti Indonesia. 

The Indonesian government has pledged to reach net-zero emission by 2060 or sooner, and the transport sector is a major emitter. Transport produces 26 percent of Indonesia's carbon dioxide emissions, according to Bakrie & Brothers president director Anindya Bakrie.

“So we can start with public transport, namely buses if we wish to help the government achieve its net-zero emission pledge and propel the electrification program alongside with its industrialization,” Anindya told a press conference, broadcasted virtually on Thursday.

The bus electrification project uses technology provided by Chinese automaker BYD Auto, which has been working with Bakrie Autoparts since 2018. At the conference, Anindya also announced Vektr’s strategic partnership with local auto assembly plant Tri Sakti. 

TransJakarta was the first to order Vektr-BYD’s electric buses.

Thirty Vektr-BYD's buses will soon operate on TransJakarta's non-bus rapid transit route.

"If God is willing, we will inaugurate the 30 electric buses for TransJakarta next week,” Anindya said.

The Jakarta provincial government is seeking to operate up to 100 electric buses in the near future, and Vektr hopes to be the one to help Jakarta meet this target. Tri Sakti will be in charge of assembling the completely knocked down buses.

Vektr had conducted trial runs for its electric buses for three and a half years, according to Anindya. 

The company, along with BYD, first drove the bus at the 2018 IMF-World Bank annual meeting in Bali. Vektr’s electric buses also underwent and passed the trial runs in Jakarta, Aceh, and Bogor. Vektr also took its electric bus from Jakarta to Magelang. The distance traveled in all those trial runs totaled a whopping 24,000 kilometers.

“[For comparison,] 24,000 kilometers is enough for us to travel from Jakarta to London and come back,” he added.

According to Anindya, Vektr wishes to take part in electrifying the buses in other cities via the government’s buy-the-service (BTS) scheme for public transport. The company also dreams of supplying electric buses to Indonesia’s new capital in East Kalimantan.

“Data shows Indonesia has at least 220,000 buses of different sizes. The new capital city is a dream project that we hope to take part in,” Anindya told the conference.