Jakarta. Vice presidential candidate Gibran Rakabuming asked rival Muhaimin Iskandar if he was “anti-nickel” during the debate on Sunday evening after the latter’s team reportedly claimed that the metal was losing popularity to lithium ferro-phosphate (LFP) batteries in the global electric vehicle (EV) market.

The domestic processing of minerals, including nickel, has been at the center of President Joko “Jokowi'' Widodo's economic development strategy. The Prabowo-Gibran pair is planning on carrying on this policy. They want Indonesia to continue to export nickel in more sophisticated forms rather than shipping them raw. This is expected to increase the chance of Indonesia entering the global EV battery supply chain. Nickel is a mainstay in lithium-ion batteries.

However, the strategy drew criticism from the Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin campaign team, particularly from its senior member and former minister Thomas Lembong. Thomas said recently that the EV giant Tesla was already switching to the iron phosphate-based LFP batteries. LFP does not contain nickel, making it a cheaper battery alternative.

“Candidate number 1 [Anies-Muhaimin] and their campaign team often talked about LFP [batteries]. Is your team anti-nickel or what? Please explain,” Gibran asked Muhaimin -- also known as Cak Imin-- in the televised vice presidential debate. 

In response, Muhaimin talked about environmental ethics.

“Whatever we do, including mining activities, should adhere to environmental ethics. We should commit to creating a balance between human [activities] and the environment,” Muhaimin said.

Gibran was not happy with the answer as his rival did not talk much about the LFP batteries.

“How strange. It is your campaign team that keeps on talking about LFP, and here we see the vice presidential candidate not understanding what LFP really is. … Your team says Tesla is not using nickel. Those are lies. Tesla still uses nickel,” Gibran said.

“Indonesia has the world’s largest nickel reserves. That is our strength and bargaining power. But you talked about LFP [batteries] instead. That is the same as promoting Chinese products. ... I wonder if you are anti-nickel just like Tom Lembong,” Gibran told Muhaimin by mentioning the former minister by his nickname.

Research firm Adamas Intelligence revealed last October that Tesla was the leading carmaker by nickel deployed onto roads year-to-date, with over 31,800 tons of nickel used in its EV batteries in January-July 2023. A 2022 Reuters story wrote that Tesla had already used LFP batteries made by Chinese battery giant CATL for its Model 3s. 

Indonesia and Australia hold the title of having the world’s largest nickel reserves, reaching 21 million metric tons each. Indonesia’s nickel mines production reached an estimated 1.6 million metric tons in 2022, according to a US Geological Survey report.