Development of Electric Bus for G20 in Bali to Wrap up in October

TheIndonesia.id - The development of electric buses that the Indonesian government will introduce and use during G20 events in Bali next November is set to complete in October as team of experts from different universities continues its research.

Research coordinator for Merah Putih electric bus Muhammad Nur Yuniarto from Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS), Surabaya, said the development of the electric public transportation aims to show research and development capability of higher education institutions in Indonesia.

“The manufacturing of this electric bus started in February 2022 and is targeted to wrap up in October,” Yuniarto confirmed on Monday, May 23, as reported by Antara.

According to him, this electric bus started from the Inobus electric bus which is manufactured by state-owned company PT INKA – with a number of improvement made by the research team.

If Inobus only has 30 percent of domestic component level (TKDN), Merah Putih has an increased TKDN percentage of 60 since its development involves a number of universities in the country.

Among some of the educational institutions that take part in the project are ITS, Gadjah Mada University, Airlangga University, and Indonesian Institute of Arts Denpasar.

“These universities [are involved in] making design even spare part components,” Yuniarto said.

The engineering lecturer also confirmed that after G20-related events are completed, the development and manufacturing of Merah Putih buses will continue as they are planned to be used widely, including in cities like Surabaya and Bandung.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Transportation said the introduction of electric buses in G20 summit in Bali is part of the nationwide campaign to mainstream the use and adoption of electric vehicles (EV) in Indonesia.

“The Ministry has initiated that that in the near future we’ll have electric bus for Indonesians,” director of river, lake and ferry transportation at the Ministry, Junaidi, said on January 18.

He said the use of EV in public transportation system is expected to efficiently deliver the message to public about the upsides of environmentally friendly transportation. And the G20 summit in Bali was the chosen event to try out the plan.

“This is part of the campaign to use the environmentally friendly EV as it will reduce carbon emission. [The buses] will be first deployed during the G20 event,” Junaidi explained.