Jakarta. China's electric vehicle producer Build Your Dreams (BYD) plans to invest $1.3 billion (Rp 20.3 trillion) to build a manufacturing plant in Indonesia with a capacity of 150,000 units. 

"A $1.3 billion investment with a capacity of 150,000 units. I appreciate BYD's commitment to launching battery electric vehicles (BEV). I hope this can strengthen the era of electric vehicles, an environmentally friendly ecosystem,"  Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto said in a video message announcing the investment on Thursday.

BYD officially introduced its electric cars -- BYD Seal, BYD Atto 3, and BYD Dolphin -- to the Indonesian market. The launch event took place at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII), East Jakarta.

"Thank you for this grand launching at TMII. We are delighted to gather here at the beginning of 2024 to officially launch BYD Passenger in Indonesia," said Liu Xueliang, General Manager of BYD Asia-Pacific.

According to Liu Xueliang, these electric cars have undergone global testing and are distributed to almost 70 countries worldwide.

BYD Co., based in the southern China tech hub of Shenzhen, outpaced Texas-based Tesla Inc. as the top seller of electric cars in the last three months of 2023.  BYD sold 526,409 electric cars in the three months, topping Tesla’s 484,507 units.

The company is expanding into new markets. Its exports more than quadrupled to 242,765 vehicles in 2023, accounting for 8 percent of its sales, and BYD announced last month that it would build an electric vehicle factory in Hungary, its first in Europe.