Tech giant Gojek has formed a joint venture with Indonesian energy company TBS Energi Utama to develop the country’s infrastructure for two-wheel electronic vehicles (EV).
The partnership, known as Electrum, is in line with Gojek’s and TBS’s commitments to achieving zero emissions by 2030 and the Indonesian government’s plans to prioritise the development of the EV industry.
Under the shared vision, Gojek pledges to transform its fleet to 100 per cent EVs, while TBS will double down on investing in clean and renewable energy.
Leveraging Gojek’s deep presence in Indonesia and TBS’s capabilities in the energy sector, the two will team up to build a comprehensive and scalable EV ecosystem, including two-wheel EV manufacturing, battery packaging, battery swap infrastructure and EV financing.
“We will be able to support Indonesia’s transition to building a cleaner, more accessible and sustainable mobility system. It will ultimately make EVs the norm, contributing to the country’s emissions reduction targets and improving air quality in our cities,” said Gojek CEO and co-founder Kevin Aluwi.
Also read: The growth of electric vehicles is saving the planet, one trip at a time
Launched in 2010, Gojek is a Southeast Asian super app for ordering food, commuting, digital payments, shopping, hyper-local delivery, and two dozen services. In May this year, Gojek and Tokopedia announced a merger to form GoTo Group. The internet giant seeks a valuation of between US$25 billion and US$30 billion in the next funding round.
Gojek’s Group CTO Severan Rault told e27 in an August interview that Gojek wanted to move from the idea of a super app to an on-demand company, meaning it wants to become a platform that gives its users everything they need very quickly. This includes the firm’s foray into areas such as sustainability and transportation.
Apart from the joint venture with TBS, the decacorn also recently announced an EV and battery swapping pilot scheme in Jakarta in collaboration with Taiwanese electric scooter maker Gogoro, electric vehicle producer Gesit, and state-owned company Pertamina.
Gojek’s parent company GoTo Group will invest in Gogoro through a Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE) scheme, which is expected to complete the transaction in early 2022.
Initially, the firm will deploy 500 electric motorcycles, with plans to scale to 5,000 EVs travelling a total of one million kilometres in the future.
At this stage, Gojek customers will be able to select EVs when using the GoRide service in Jakarta. Driver-partners using EVs can also go about their daily routines more efficiently, serving customers across GoRide, GoFood, GoSend Instant, GoShop and GoMart.
Also read: Gojek wants to move from the idea of a super app to an on-demand company for everything: Group CTO
The data from this pilot project will also be utilised to bolster the technology and infrastructure for EVs to meet the burgeoning demand in the Indonesian market.
“It is crucial to develop a strong and comprehensive EV ecosystem to enable large-scale adoption of EVs in Indonesia,” said TBS Vice President Director Pandu Sjahrir.
In addition, Gojek created a carbon emission calculation feature, namely GoGreener Carbon Offset, by partnering with the startup Jejak.in. Through this feature, users can calculate the amount of daily carbon emission and convert it to planting trees for carbon absorption.
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Image Credit: Gojek
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