On a Mission to Create a Cleaner Future With Electric Two-Wheelers & Services - Charged Indonesia CCO Stephanus Widi

One company that has been making waves in the Indonesian electric mobility scene is Charged Indonesia, an electric motorcycle manufacturer and distributor. Founded in March 2022, Charged Indonesia’s core value is to 'Ride for Good' with a mission to improve the quality of our environment and lives through the increased adoption of electric motorcycles.

Auto Futures has been talking to Stephanus Widi, Chief Commercial Officer for Charged Indonesia.

“Carbon emissions from traditional combustion motorcycles are one of the main sources of air pollution in Indonesia, and Charged Indonesia aims to improve this by leading the transition of combustion motorcycle users towards sustainable mobility. We are committed to drive mass adoption of affordable, practical yet desirable electric motorcycles in Indonesia and strive to elevate the entire mobility experience for the millions of motorcycle riders and passengers,” says Widi.

In October 2022, Charged Indonesia introduced its first electric motorcycle line-up comprising Charged Anoa, Charged Rimau and Charged Maleo. The line-up covers various needs including logistics, corporate fleets, ride hailing services and personal transportation. While the company didn’t offer battery swap services initially, with a growing user base of motor taxi (Ojol) riders, whose average daily commute went up to 200-300 km, it is now providing battery swapping services at its experience centre called E-shed.

India's VMOTO SOCO Group became a strategic investor and technology partner to scale Charged Indonesia’s EVaaS (Electric Vehicles as-a-Service) business in Indonesia in November 2022. In fact, Charged Indonesia’s three models are equipped with VMOTO SOCO’s vehicle technology.

For starters, the Charged Anoa, its heavy-duty electric motorbike, is derived from VMOTO SOCO’s VS1. The powerful and sporty Charged Rimau is derived from VMOTO SOCO’s CPX. And finally, the slim and agile Charged Maleo is derived from VMOTO SOCO’s VS2.

“We are very honoured to have VMOTO SOCO join our mission to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles in Indonesia and beyond. Charged Indonesia is well poised to scale with VMOTO SOCO’s support as our core technology partner and strategic investor,” says Widi.

“We are proud to be an integral part of Charged’s mission and vision for Indonesia as they scale up within the 3rd largest motorcycle market in the world capable of distributing anywhere between 5-8M new motorcycles every year,” adds Ivan Teo, Director of VMOTO SOCO Group.

In a pioneering move, all three of its models are available to users in Jabodetabek (Jakarta metropolitan area or Greater Jakarta) through Charged’s e-motorcycle-as-a-service subscription. Currently, the subscription terms available are 3, 6, 9 and 12 months with a monthly subscription fee starting from IDR 1,450,000. It also include services such as roadside assistance and free servicing at the company’s E-shed outlets.

“All these benefits are provided by Charged Indonesia for a better mobility experience. No longer do customers have to worry about complicated warranty claims, high costs of servicing, vehicle financing and resale values as Charged Indonesia offers freedom of mobility for two-wheeled vehicle riders with our leading electric motorcycles and hassle-free e-motorcycle-as-a-service platform. Our subscriptions enable us to provide the right solution to anyone looking to enjoy and take advantage of an affordable electrified riding,” explains Widi.

Manufacturing in The Giga-Shed

As part of Charged Indonesia's mission to support organisations like PROFAUNA, a foundation engaged in the protection of forests and wildlife, it has developed Rimba, a special electric motorcycle model built for challenging operations to support PROFAUNA’s forest rangers in daily on and off-road patrols.

Rimba is designed for tough endurance with protective body structures, location tracking with class-leading electric range of up to 300 km, making it the ideal mode of sustainable mobility for PROFAUNA’s forest rangers to do their difficult job in protecting and conserving the forests and wildlife with zero tailpipe emissions, silent operations, and low carbon footprint.

“There’s a growing demand for electric vehicles in Indonesia, more players are emerging with more EV products and the government is also very supportive in creating more and more regulation to boost the EV Industry. From the user side, lots of them are still learning on how the EV ecosystem will support their activities in using EV,” says Widi, speaking about the electric mobility scene in Indonesia.

“Understanding the situation, we introduced EVAS (Electric Vehicle as A Services) by releasing our subscription mechanism for the user to have quick and easy access to experience using Electric motorcycles. With an affordable subscription rate users can experience all the benefits in driving an EV, we hope this mechanism can expedite the adoption of electric bikes from ICE bikes.”

Charged Indonesia’s batteries can be charged from home, which reduces the cost of one battery charge to IDR 5. Since the batteries are portable, users can now carry and charge them from just about anywhere. It’s little moves like this that is helping potential consumers get over their range anxiety. But range anxiety is just one of the challenges hampering adoption in the region.

“Customers still see EVs as part of lifestyle, instead of necessity, which has higher acquisition cost and many hassles in its operation. Addressing these challenges requires a strong ecosystem approach from government along with business players, including NGOs and universities to continuously educate the market about the benefits of EVs, the environmental impact that we create while using it, and most importantly, to create a better economic impact for everyone’s life from reducing fuel subsidy and lowering transportation cost,” he says.

In December 2022, Charged Indonesia officially introduced its factory, experience, research and development complex in Cikupa, Tangerang. Called Giga-Shed, the complex occupies a 16,000 square metres area and fully operates on renewable energy. Giga-Shed uses 200 kW solar panels as the power source and 1,000 kWH battery energy storage.

Apart from manufacturing its electric motorcycle line-up, the Giga-Shed also functions as the company’s lithium battery warehouse. Presently, Charged Indonesia sources its batteries from CATL, one of the largest electric vehicle battery manufacturers in the world.

“Charged Indonesia has scaled up with rapid growth. In less than 6 months, we managed to build a fully operated 16,000 square metres factory to assemble our electric motorcycles. Our team also rapidly grew from 5-6 people in the beginning to more than 100 employees.”

Educating the Market About the Benefit of EVs

Charged Indonesia first started with Indonesia because of the country’s thriving two-wheeler population, hoping to have the biggest impact in creating a better environment by reducing air pollution. But the company aims to further expand into Southeast Asia and beyond. The company is currently exporting its bikes to countries such as Vietnam , Thailand and Malaysia.

With a capacity to produce 230,000 bikes each year, as well as with the bike technology supported by VMOTO SOCO, Charged Indonesia is confident in meeting the market’s demands.

Speaking about what the road ahead looks like, Widi says: “We will continue to expand our operations to serve the market and meet our objective to deliver 10 million bikes in 10 years. We will continue to work with governments, NGOs, news media, and customers to help educate the market about the benefits of EVs. Our business model allows us to support the customer across different decision stages of using EVs, right from EV subscription up to EV purchase."

"We believe in our mission in creating sustainable mobility for everyone in Indonesia and the SEA market, and are asking for everyone to join our mission to create a better environment and cleaner future for generations to come with electric vehicles,” he concludes.