Jakarta. City-owned bus operator Transjakarta is planning to expand its electric bus fleet by adding 70 more emission-free vehicles by the end of this year.

"We are currently working on our pilot project of having 100 e-buses on our fleet. We have already operated 30 electric buses so far,” Transjakarta president director Welfizon Yuza told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday.

"We plan on adding 22 more electric buses in the near future, and we will eventually reach a hundred by the end of this year. We are on track to meet that 100 electric bus target as part of the first piloting phase,” Welfizon said.

Transjakarta aims to have half of its buses run on electricity by 2027, and eventually an entirely electrified bus fleet by 2030. 

Transjakarta initially planned on hitting the 100-electric-bus mark by 2022 but decided to push back the deadline to a year later. Syafrin Liputo, the head of Jakarta’s transportation agency, attributed the missed deadline to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“ As [the bus] is imported, the producing country faced a lockdown, so there had to be some adjustments,” Syafrin said.

According to Syafrin, the remaining 70 buses will come from operators Mayasari Bakti and Bianglala, among others. State-run bus company Perum PPD, which recently merged with public transportation operator Damri, will be operating some of the additional buses. 

Mayasari Bakti is operating the 30 existing buses supplied by Bakrie Group’s VKTR in partnership with Chinese automaker BYD Auto.

The said 30 buses have traveled 2 million kilometers over the past 13 months. The ridership of these e-buses reached 10 million passengers, saving 5.5 million kilograms of carbon dioxide. The buses have also saved 81 percent on fuel costs per day, VKTR reported.

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