Developing home charging can cut Indonesia’s public charging costs

Supporting the deployment of electric vehicle (EV) chargers is a critical part of vehicle electrification efforts around the world, including in Indonesia. Leveraging our study assessing charging infrastructure needs for electric cars in the country in 2030, the ICCT recently undertook new analysis to support Indonesia’s Just Energy Transition Partnership in developing the 2024 Comprehensive Investment and Policy Plan. We’ve teamed up with the Energy Efficiency and Electrification Working Group under the leadership of the Net Zero World Initiative, and as part of this, extended our 2030 charging infrastructure projections to estimate needs in Indonesia in 2035.

In short, pushing for greater adoption of home charging will be crucial for reducing government expenditure on public chargers. Let’s go through the basic elements first and then we’ll detail how we arrived at this.

For EVs, there are private chargers and public chargers. In our updated analysis to 2035, we categorize chargers located in single-family homes and vehicle depots as private chargers. The costs of installing private chargers are borne by individuals or companies. Under the category of public chargers are public destination, en-route, workplace, and public residential chargers. (In our earlier study, public residential was not included. However, as more and more chargers are being installed in residential complexes and apartment buildings in Indonesia, our analysis to 2035 includes public residential.) Although the funds for public charging infrastructure are usually provided by the government, regulation in Indonesia allows private actors to invest.

There are also two primary charger types in Indonesia: Level 2 and direct current fast charging (DCFC). The capacities of Level 2 chargers range from 7 kW to 22 kW, and these are mostly used for home, depot, public destination, workplace, and public residential charging. DCFC capacities in Indonesia range from 25 kW to 200 kW and these can fully charge an electric car in 20–60 minutes; DCFC is often used for en-route and public destination charging.

Table 1 details the results of our assessment of charging needs to 2035, for which we considered three scenarios of home charging adoption, 60%, 70%, and 80%. Under a scenario where 80% of EV owners have home charging, we estimate that 71,647 public chargers would be needed, and these would cost approximately Rp. 15.4 trillion (US$964 million) by 2035. The need for public chargers is greater when there is less home charging, and with adoption rates of 70% and 60%, it would require 93,876 public chargers and 116,112 public chargers, respectively. The total investment needed could be as high as Rp. 21.2 trillion (US$1.33 billion) under the 60% scenario and around Rp. 18.3 trillion (US$1.15 billion) for the 70% scenario.

Table 1. Total chargers (units) needed by 2035 under 60%, 70%, and 80% home charger adoption

As you can see from the table, public charging infrastructure is dominated by public destination and public residential. The public residential chargers are Level 2 chargers in residential complexes, and they’re used most often as a substitute for a private home charger. Note, too, that by 2035, Level 2 chargers are projected to be approximately 78% of all chargers across Indonesia. For DCFC chargers, these would be required in large numbers for en-route applications—99% of the 6,184 en-route chargers estimated to be needed by 2035. This all helps illuminate the expected needs in various locations for both government and private stakeholders involved in deployment.

We map the number of chargers that we estimate will be needed in each province in Figure 1. In 2035, around 64% of all chargers are projected to be in the top five provinces by number of chargers: DKI Jakarta, Jawa Barat, Jawa Timur, Jawa Tengah, and Sumatra Utara. This is aligned with our projections for total the stock of electric cars in 2035, as most of the electric cars are expected to be in those provinces.

Figure 1. Distribution of public chargers for electric cars in Indonesia under the ICCT’s 80% home charging share scenario

Note: This map is presented without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries, and the name of any territory, city, or area.

A recent survey showed that EV users in Indonesia prefer to charge their vehicles (two-wheelers and cars) at home because they mostly use their EVs for short-distance trips. Similar preferences are seen in many other regions, and that’s why our estimates show that as home charger adoption increases, the need for public charging infrastructure decreases. Because of this, pushing for more home charger adoption would help minimize the amount of state budget needed for public charging infrastructure.