Jakarta. The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources is currently revising the regulation on electric vehicles to facilitate the development of charging stations and reduce charging rates.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Arifin Tasrif acknowledged that the costs in the supporting industry of the electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem are still considered relatively high. However, he urged the public to consider the savings that can be achieved through the use of EVs.

"For example, with electric motorcycles, riders can save at least 70 percent of their energy costs per day compared to using 1 liter of fuel per day," Arifin said in an exclusive interview with B-Universe Media Holdings on Tuesday.

He said the supporting EV industry needs to be equipped with battery providers, workshops, and charging stations. The presence of workshops for converting oil-fueled vehicles to EVs is believed to stimulate the growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), thereby invigorating the economic sector.

The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry is currently developing an integrated application that functions as a monitoring and evaluation application for charging stations. 

This platform will also serve as an information center for electric vehicle users to find out the locations of charging stations according to connector types and battery availability.

In the future, this application will be beneficial for electric vehicle users as they will not need to have different applications from various charging station operators. On the other hand, charging station operators will not be required to build their own application systems.

The ministry, responsible for EV charging infrastructure, has also established regulations and a roadmap for electric vehicles and EV charging infrastructure. Arifin also said that his office has provided tariff incentives for charging electric vehicles.

Furthermore, the government is also facilitating licensing for domestic electric vehicles and charging station operators to support the EV ecosystem.

"With these measures in place, it is expected that investments related to the electric vehicle ecosystem in Indonesia will grow," he said.