A recent report stated Indonesian Electric Vehicle (EV) Market Expected to Reach USD 20 Billion by 2029, up from $533 million in 2022.Furthermore, half of the entire motorcycle market in Southeast Asia could be replaced by electric two-wheelers by 2030, according to McKinsey Associate Partner Rahul Gupta At the G20 summit last year, it was stated that.
Today, an Indonesian electric car maker said Maca said it has raised $37.6 million in seed funding, one of the largest in Southeast Asia, to mass-produce its two-wheeled electric vehicle, which it plans to do by the end of 2024. Maka will begin deploying its first pilot electric vehicle this month.
The seed funding will also allow Maka to continue the in-house development of electric vehicles it started last year and start building a factory in West Java later in 2023.
AV Ventures, South Korea’s SV Investment and East Ventures co-led the latest funding. Other investors in the round include Northstar Group, Provident, Alfa Crop, Skystar Capital, Peak XV Partners (formerly known as Sequoia India and SEA), Openspace Ventures, Shinhan Venture Investment, Beenext, Kinesys and M Venture Partners (MVP).
Maka Motors CEO Raditya Wibowo and former Gojek CTO Arief Fadillah founded Maka in 2021 to accelerate the adoption of electric motorcycles in Indonesia.
“Like many Indonesians, our founders grew up on motorcycles, and we have also worked extensively with Gojek’s ride-hailing drivers since 2015,” Wibowo said in an email interview with TechCrunch. “Indonesia is the world’s third-largest powered two-wheeler (vehicle) market, but EV penetration remains relatively low.”
With only 43,000 registered e-scooters among existing businesses in Indonesia, the start-up said the country has not yet fully met its goal. Aims to produce 600,000 electric vehicles by 2030. Indonesia has more than 127 million motorcycles, most of which run on gasoline.
(LR) Arief Fadillah, Co-Founder & CTO, MAKA Motors_ Raditya Wibowo, Founder & CEO, MAKA Motors
“Many current two-wheeled EV products are imported from China in the form of complete knockdown (CKD) kits, which are designed to meet the needs of Chinese users,” the CEO said. “These 2W (two-wheel) vehicles designed in China, although relatively cheap, are not yet able to replace the gasoline motorcycles currently used by most Indonesian users.”
In Indonesia, a 2W vehicle needs enough power to overtake a car, because passengers share the same lane with the car, the average travel distance is longer (than China), and unlike China, it is common to carry adult passengers. Another pain point, Wibowo said, is cost. Most 2W EV offerings with larger batteries and more motor power are more expensive than gas bikes.
Maka’s mission is to create the best electric motorcycles that allow Indonesian users to save money on gas. The two-year-old startup says it wants to offer Indonesian riders a price that is more competitive than existing bikes while taking into account mileage, power, usability and durability.
ride-hailing company Gojack plans to replace all vehicles with electric vehicles by 2030, and catch indonesia This year the goal is to operate at least 85,000 electric vehicles in Indonesia.
“The penetration of electric two-wheelers in Indonesia currently stands at 0.2% of the market (versus internal combustion engine motorcycles) and has the potential to exceed 10% in the next five years if public and private stakeholders work together to build a favorable local electric vehicle industry,” said Michael Soerijadji, Founder and Managing Partner of AC Ventures. “We believe that Maka Motors will be a game changer in one of the largest two-wheeler markets in the world. .”
The company’s team consists of approximately 40 employees. Many members of its team have previously worked for gasoline motorcycle manufacturers in Indonesia and global automotive companies in Japan and Germany.
