Chinese Electric Cars Cause Job Numbers to Plummet

Especially after the government provided various stimuli. For example, incentives for Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) from abroad.

The decision above is actually seen as strengthening the dominance of imported products. And it hinders the optimization of domestic car production.

"Now, 63 percent of BEVs are imported, whereas in 2024 it was (only) 40 percent," said Riyanto, an automotive observer and researcher at LPEM FEB UI in Jakarta some time ago.

Riyanto explained that the surge in the population of imported electric cars proves that Indonesia is increasingly dependent on products from abroad.

Photo : KatadataOTO

Meanwhile, the domestic automotive industry is still far from optimal. Thus, this situation has the potential to create a market imbalance.

This can automatically cause local producers to suffer losses. Their market share is being eroded by the presence of CBU EVs.

"Going forward, if this continues, imported BEVs will eventually dominate. This means that the installed capacity for domestic production will not be used," Riyanto added.

Meanwhile, the Association of Indonesian Automotive Industries (Gaikindo) noted that car industry utilization has decreased. From an initial 73 percent to only 55 percent.

Then, new car sales from dealers to consumers (retail) were only 889,680 units in 2024. This number dropped by 10.9 percent from 998,059 units in 2023.

This condition is predicted to worsen, as imported electric cars are believed to be unable to absorb local components next year when the incentives end.

The impact is that the domestic component industry is starting to cry out. The threat of Layoffs (PHK) is imminent.