Indonesia: Electric cars idle as charging stations cannot be operated

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta Post, 6 Oct 13;

The government's plan to operate electric vehicles to transport delegates during the 2013 APEC Summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, as part of its "green" commitment, failed to follow through.

Only four locally made electric cars-much fewer than the earlier promised of 20 cars -- are available inside the Nusa Dua complex but they do not have access to the newly built charging stations due to poor coordination between institutions.

State-owned electricity company PLN has actually installed 10 electric vehicle charging stations to support the government's plan to use the electric cars as part of the summit's operational vehicles.

But the area surrounding the charging installations is being used as a parking lot for VVIP cars. As a consequence, the area is tightly secured by personnel who are preventing any irrelevant persons from entering the area, as well as the electric cars.

Therefore, the charging equipment, currently still wrapped in plastic, cannot be used.

"We are just following orders," said a military officer guarding the area. The four electric minivans made by the "Kupu-Kupu Malam" team from Yogyakarta named "Gendhis", are still parked across the street. "We had planned to use them as supporting vehicles but we ran out of time to deal with everything, including administrative permission from the summit's organizing committee," the team's coordinator, Ricky Elson, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Ricky refused to explain why the charging facilities had been put inside a restricted area. "Ask PLN," he said.