Jakarta Goes Green with Charging Stations, Electric Cars
We love green technologies, we love cleaner air, and we love cheaper solutions. Thankfully, Jakarta might be on the right track to all those three wonderful things in the near future – for personal cars at least. The Indonesian state electricity utility (PLN) has just finished installing 10 electric car charging stations in Jakarta a couple of days ago as part of a bid to promote the use of electric cars in the near future. How near? In the next year or two.
私たちは環境にやさしい技術が大好きだ。きれいな空気も大好きだが、安価な解決策も大歓迎だ。
ありがたいことに、ジャカルタはこれら３つの素晴らしい将来に向けての正しい道の上にいるようだ。少なくとも個人向け自動車に関しては。
インドネシア国有電力公社(PLN)は、ジャカルタに10の電気自動車用充電ステーションを設置することを数日前に終えたばかりだ。これは、将来的に電気自動車の利用を促進するための努力の一環だ。では将来とはいつごろだろうか？来年か、再来年だ。
At the moment, the Indonesia-made electric cars are still at the prototype stage. The government plans to create electric vehicles in four classes of cars that are similar in size to the Suzuki Carry, Toyota Avanza, Honda Jazz, and then a larger Mercedes-Benz. Interestingly though, the minister of state-owned enterprises, Dahlan Iskan (pictured above), who is the one aggressively pushing the electric car program, is looking forward to getting his hands on a third prototype next week, which is more like a Ferrari level of sports car:
The first electric car prototype is a minibus, while the second one is a small hatchback (pictured above). The first prototype was developed by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and the Research and Technology Ministry, while the second and the third prototype are developed by local vehicle maker Ahmadi Mesin. The second prototype has now been used by Mr. Iskan since July 16. The minister said via Detik that if his hatchback car can drive 1,000 km without encountering any problems, then the car would pass the test and should be ready for mass production.
Up until two days ago, he claimed to have driven 300 km with the car without any problems. Its batteries can go 150 km on a full charge. Dahlan is ambitious that the mass production can happen as early as the beginning of 2013 should the infrastructure issues be solved by then, while the industry minister M.S. Hidayat was a bit more cautious, telling Okezone that maybe the mass production can start in 2014.
The electric car seems like a great idea to save money as well as the environment in the country. Dahlan said via Okezone that a single electric charge for the little hatchback with a 150 km-range would only cost around IDR 50,000 (US$5.30) while the usual fuel-load would cost around IDR 300,000 ($31.80) – though he should’ve pointed out that all that fuel would carry you further than in the electric minicar. He also claimed that the cost of building each charging station is much cheaper: building a typical petrol station would cost at least IDR 3 billion ($318,000), and would take two years of construction [1]; whereas for electric charging points, you only need one week to build it.
The country can also eventually save up to IDR 500 trillion ($53 billion) with this project according to the minister’s claims to TribunNews.
If you’re wondering how much the electric car cost, the tiny hatchback car, which is named after its developer, the Ahmadi Mesin 5.0, is touted at around IDR 200 million ($21,200) – a pretty large price tag for a tiny vehicle. While for the electric supercar, the minister is anticipating a price of around IDR 1.5 billion ($159,000).
The cars look good, the infrastructure is slowly underway, and it offers cheaper personal transport than oil-powered cars – everything just seems too good to be true. I hope that it’s all feasible soon though.
翻訳者注：前後関係から考えて、the minister＝Dahlan氏と思われます。
電気自動車はいくらぐらいか心配なら、開発会社の名にちなんで名付けられたハッチバック、Ahmadi Mesin 5.0を見るとよいだろう。販売価格は、約2億ルピア(21,200ドル)で、小型車としてはかなり高めである。一方、電気スーパーカーのThe Ministerは約15億ルピア（159,000ドル）になると予想される。
どれもいい車だ。インフラ整備も徐々に進行中であり、ガソリン車、ディーゼル車よりも経費が安い。何もかも信じられないほど凄いのだが、近い将来、電気自動車社が時代が到来することを願ってやまない。
電気自動車はなかなかいい。インフラ整備はゆっくりと進行中で、ガソリン車よりも輸送費は安くなる。何もかもが良すぎて話が信じられない。早く計画が実現するよう望んでいる。
1. The minister seems to have glossed over the fact that (private) oil companies build their own petrol stations from their own budgets, while the electric charging points are funded by public money.
翻訳者より：一番最後の段落の2行目を、以下のように訂正させてください。
× 電気自動車社が時代が到来することを願ってやまない。
○ 電気自動車の時代が到来することを願ってやまない。
大変失礼しました。