ION Mobility announced its plan to build a plant in Cikarang to produce batteries and electric motorbikes in effort to achieve 50% local content.
Heaptalk, Jakarta — Singapore-based EV company ION Mobility announced its plan to establish a production facility in Cikarang, Indonesia. The plant will produce batteries and electric motorbikes.
ION Mobility will mass-produce the M1-S, which is the first model in the M series. The company is going to develop four main models with several variants for each model. The M1-S was introduced in Indonesia at Indonesia Motorcycle Show (IMOS) 2022.
“The production facility in Cikarang will be our main driver to achieve 50% local content by the end of 2023,” said CEO and founder of Ion Mobility James Chan as quoted by Katadata (02/14). In the short term, ION Mobility is preparing local Indonesian completely knock-down (CKD) assembly with the TVS factory in East Karawang as a viable option.
The construction of this plant follows series A funding worth US$18.7 million led by TVS Motor Company (02/02). As part of the investment, TVS Motor stated to support ION with the necessary ecosystem for success in the Singapore and Indonesia electric motorcycle market.
Further, James said, “We look forward to offering a media tour of our facility later this year, where you can experience the build of the battery and M1-S right in front of you, and test drive the assembled motorcycle afterward.”
Collaborating with PLN for the provision of charging services
Previously, ION Mobility signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) through its subsidiary PT Industri Ion Mobilitas with State Electricity Company (PT PLN) for the provision of electric vehicle motorcycle charging infrastructure facilities for ION’s and PLN’s users (11/02).
Under the partnership, ION will contribute to the near-term expansion of the SPLU network with an initial commitment to install up to 100 co-branded SPLU chargers across Jakarta. Afterward, the company will expand the network nationwide according to market needs.
The charging stations will be discoverable through both ION’s and PLN’s mobile apps. This allows users to easily find and use more than 2,900 SPLU chargers in Jakarta and more than 6,500 SPLU chargers throughout Indonesia.
The signing of the MoU was inaugurated by the Indonesian Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita at IMOS 2022, which was also attended by the Ambassador of Singapore to Indonesia Kwok Fook Seng.
