Korean EV charging startup to launch business in Indonesia

South Korea’s electric vehicle charging platform startup is set to make inroads into Indonesia, a prospective EV market with the world’s fourth-largest population of 276 million.

Charzin said it established a joint venture earlier this month with South Korean smart energy solution provider Tide Co. and Indonesian payment solution IT company Ciwaru Transaksi Elektronik (Cetho) for the EV charging business in Southeast Asia’s top economy.

“We have established a JV to advance into Indonesia with a plan to dominate the market through cooperation with local companies,” said Charzin CEO Choi Young-seok.

Indonesia is an emerging battlefield in the EV industry as the government is taking various policies including tax incentives to expand the EV penetration rate. Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea’s top automaker, earlier this year began mass production of its iconic all-electric crossover IONIQ 5 at its newly built plant in the Kota Deltamas industrial complex in Bekasi Regency, about 40 km east of Jakarta.

Charzin, Tide and Cetho completed the development of a charger-linked platform for the Indonesian market. The country has some 150 rapid chargers and 1,000 chargers installed, but they have been poorly operated.

The JV hopes for a high potential for the expansion of the infrastructure since charging devices have not been able to keep up with the growth in the EV sector.

G20 SUMMIT

Charzin plans to operate an EV charging platform in Indonesia and Tide is set to handle works related to remote meter readings of local electric power suppliers. Both companies will install rapid and slow EV chargers while supplying vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging devices that absorb electricity from the car battery and push it back to the grid.

Cetho is set to operate a system for easy payments with smartphones or prepaid cards, given the low credit card use in Indonesia. The local company will introduce EVZone, a payment system based on blockchain and prepaid cards for automakers and government agencies.

The JV is scheduled to start its Indonesian business with a pilot EV charging service in Bali’s iconic Garuda Wisnu Kenaca Cultural Park (GWK) Lotus Pond, the venue for the welcoming cultural dinner for the G20 summit in late November, with the country’s Alam Sutera Realty Tbk.

The Indonesian real estate conglomerate owns the largest shopping mall in Jakarta, wherein the JV plans to provide the first EV charging services. 

Write to Da-Eun Choi at max@hankyung.com
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.