Transportation Jakarta (Transjakarta) continues to have ambitions in transitioning the use of conventional buses to being powered by electric batteries. This is one of Transjakarta’s missions to provide environmentally friendly transportation for the Indonesian people, especially in the DKI Jakarta area.
To that end, Transjakarta also collaborated through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with VKTR Mobilitas Technology (VKTR) and a British electric powertrain provider company, Equipmake Limited.
M. Yana Aditya as the President Director of Transjakarta said that this sustainability step has become an important part in the history of electricity-based public transportation in DKI Jakarta.
“This is our effort to convert diesel to electric buses (retrofit) with the company we are investing in, Equipmake. Hopefully we can add markets, outside the market for new electric buses,” he said in his official statement on Friday.
He hopes that the trial will be successful and will soon be fully implemented to retrofit around 3,000 existing Transjakarta buses which are currently still operating using internal combustion engines.
Meanwhile, Director of Mobility Technology VKTR, Gilarsi W. Setijono, explained that in the early stages, this collaboration will produce a prototype of a ‘retrofit’ bus, as well as be the beginning of the implementation of the ‘retrofit’ bus test program by Transjakarta.
“This collaboration establishes Transjakarta as the party that provides conventional buses with internal combustion engines (ICE – Internal Combustion Engine) for VKTR. These conventional buses are then engineered through a conversion process by VKTR into buses with electric motor technology,” he explained.
Gilarsi added, as a form of VKTR’s seriousness in mastering technology and developing electric vehicles in the country, his party has invested directly in Equipmake Limited. “We will produce retrofit buses that will be used in trials which are expected to take place over the next three months,” he added.
It will also collect data related to vehicle performance, including energy efficiency, mileage, and battery quality and performance. VKTR will also provide the necessary electricity charging infrastructure to support the operation of the retrofit bus.
“We hope that this strategic cooperation will run smoothly, and gradually all conventional buses in Jakarta can be converted into electric buses. Thus, we can help accelerate the achievement of the ideals of clean air and a healthier environment in the capital, ” he concluded.
