Kalista Highlights Importance of Incentives to Drive Commercial EV Adoption

KatadataOTO – Electric vehicles or Electric Vehicles (EV) are considered to have potential as a means of mobility in the commercial segment. However, their adoption is still relatively low for various reasons.

One of them is the lack of encouragement from the government and stakeholders. Kalista as one of the electric vehicle service providers highlights the importance of providing incentives.

“Perhaps there needs to be an incentive like for passenger vehicles where the Value Added Tax (VAT) is 10 percent, or a Rp 7 million (incentive) for motorcycles,” said Albert Aulia Ilyas, President Director of Kalista in Jakarta, on Thursday (04/12).

The use of electric vehicles for commercial purposes is said to be able to help reduce emissions. Considering the operational routes of vehicles in that segment are quite high.

Photo: KatadataOTO

According to Albert, in several other countries like Singapore and Malaysia, incentives are given for electric vehicles across segments. So that their adoption becomes more evenly distributed.

“That could be one way to accelerate it. Because if people or companies are given incentives, they will surely change faster,” said Albert.

On the other hand, Kalista also encourages the development of a more evenly distributed infrastructure. So that fleet consumers can be more confident in using electric vehicles for their fleet needs.

Kalista's Efforts to Accelerate EV Adoption

Kalista provides opportunities for fleet consumers to test electrified vehicles including electric buses before making a purchase.

Kalista revealed that this has been proven to make consumers more confident in using EVs as a fleet, both for public transportation and logistics needs.

Photo: Kalista

“(Consumers are not confident) because they are not familiar. It's as simple as issues with specifications, battery (capacity), and then how to install the charger,” said  Yoga Adiwinarto, Business Development Director of Kalista on the same occasion.

After being given a trial opportunity, Yoga said that many consumers claimed to be satisfied and became interested in using electric vehicles for their fleets.

Consumers also become more understanding of the electric vehicle specifications that suit their needs.

“That's ultimately what makes us see that as long as that knowledge exists, they will definitely accelerate (the use of EVs),” he asserted.