Nickel-rich Indonesia pitches EV battery plant plan to Elon Musk

abcnews.go.com:

Indonesia’s top investment official says the government has proposed building an electric vehicle battery plant to Tesla CEO Elon Musk

DENPASAR, Indonesia — Indonesia’s top investment official said Monday that the government has proposed to Tesla CEO Elon Musk the construction of an electric vehicle battery plant in the nickel-rich country.

The official spoke after Musk met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo while attending a water conference on the island of Bali.

“We made an offer, is it possible to build an EV battery factory, precursor to cathodes, here. And he said he will consider it,” Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, told reporters.

Indonesia is keen to build up industries to exploit is rich natural resources, which include the world’s largest nickel reserves. Nickel is an important material for EV batteries and solar panels.

The billionaire head of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of social platform X was visiting the Indonesian resort island to launch a Starlink satellite internet service there.

He also spoke to officials and experts attending the conference on global water challenges, saying he believed that desalination could solve water shortages if enough energy was provided.

Indonesia supplies 40% of the world’s nickel and has the potential to increase this to 75% by 2030, according to the government data. The government has set a goal of producing 600,000 electric vehicles by 2030, and will require EVs and related components produced in Indonesia to contain of 60% local content by 2027.

The country has been trying for years to secure deals with Musk’s Tesla on battery investment and for Musk’s SpaceX to provide fast internet access for remote areas of the sprawling