10 votes

Indonesia’s e-bike shops are building their own batteries

Posted by skybrian
Tags: indonesia, vehicles.electric, bicycles, ebikes, batteries, retail, author.michelle anindya, source.restofworld
https://restofworld.org/2024/homemade-ebike-battery-indonesia/

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Authors
Michelle Anindya, Laís Martins, Lam Le, Zuha Siddiqui, Kevin Schoenmakers
Published
Mar 20 2024
Word count
951 words

3 comments

  1. [3]
    Comment deleted by author
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    1. Nsutdwa
      Link Parent
      The traffic in big cities in China is almost eerie. I live next to a main urban ringroad in Europe, and the traffic noise is almost literally deafening at rush hour, and is very, very noticeable...

      The traffic in big cities in China is almost eerie. I live next to a main urban ringroad in Europe, and the traffic noise is almost literally deafening at rush hour, and is very, very noticeable (and irritating) for around 18 hours of each day, so I have a clear point of comparison. In Shanghai, seeing how many cars were electric was a real eye-opener. You still had a good chance of getting mowed down on the pavement by a scooter or moped, but you wouldn't hear it coming, so that's something.

      6 votes
    2. CptBluebear
      Link Parent
      Oh man I loved the chaotic traffic in Vietnam, but it would definitely wear me down if it was any longer than the month I was there.

      Oh man I loved the chaotic traffic in Vietnam, but it would definitely wear me down if it was any longer than the month I was there.

      2 votes
  2. skybrian
    Link
    From the article: ...

    From the article:

    Electric two-wheelers (known in Southeast Asia as E2Ws) have become more popular in Indonesia since 2023, when the country announced a subsidy of 7 million rupiah ($445) for new bikes built with a certain amount of local parts. A total of 62,000 e-bikes were registered in Indonesia as of September 2023, according to the Ministry of Transportation — nearly three times the registrations in the previous year. The country has not enforced any regulations around batteries manufactured at home or by small businesses, which has led to a thriving market for scrappy replacements. Local Facebook forums are littered with advertisements for local batteries, and a search for “lithium battery for E2W” on Indonesia’s e-commerce giant, Tokopedia, yields more than 700 results.

    ...

    The chaotic nature of Indonesia’s e-bike industry means it’s difficult to find batteries that are officially certified by manufacturers. Complicating the issue further is that each e-bike maker has their own battery size and design, with no standards shared across companies. “There are possibly more than 20 battery sizes in the market right now,” Bowo Kusumo, CEO of Spora EV, told Rest of World. “That’s a big headache.”

    As part of Indonesia’s efforts to standardize EV batteries, a consortium of state companies started the Indonesia Battery Corporation in 2021. One of its initiatives is launching its own battery-swap technology using the country’s nickel reserves. Backed by Hyundai and LG, the battery cell factory is geared to start construction this year.

    But the flourishing online market of homemade batteries may pose a threat to battery-swap startups. More people making batteries creates demand for used battery cells, which are often scrapped from existing branded batteries that enter the secondary market, or stolen from public swapping stations. Already, prospective buyers are eyeing used batteries on Facebook forums.

    5 votes