Jakarta. Indonesia and Malaysia are strengthening strategic cooperation to develop an electric vehicle battery ecosystem and supply chain in Southeast Asia, seeking to improve ASEAN’s technological self-reliance and reduce dependence on producers outside the region.

The Indonesia-Malaysia collaboration is aimed at strengthening regional capabilities across more stages of the battery value chain as ASEAN seeks to capture greater economic and technological benefits from the transition to electric vehicles, an official said on Wednesday.

Evvy Kartini, a professor at Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) and founder of the National Battery Research Institute (NBRI), said that the collaboration draws on the comparative strengths of the two countries.

Indonesia focuses on supplying battery materials and developing cathodes, while Malaysia provides pilot plant facilities where the materials can be processed into battery cells.

“Materials that we develop in Indonesia are sent to Malaysia to be processed into battery cells. Products resulting from this collaboration have even been jointly introduced with the relevant ministries in Malaysia,” Evvy said in Jakarta.

She said Southeast Asia’s rapidly expanding electric vehicle market underscores the need for the region to establish its own battery supply chain and technological capabilities.

However, Evvy stressed that Indonesia also needs its own pilot plant to bridge the gap between laboratory research and commercial-scale production.

Such a facility, she said, would allow Indonesia to move beyond its role as a supplier of raw materials and develop the technological capability to manufacture battery cells independently on a commercial scale.

Southeast Asia has emerged as one of the world’s fastest-growing regions for the electric vehicle industry, attracting investment in vehicle manufacturing, battery production, and related supply chains.

Indonesia, meanwhile, holds the world’s largest nickel reserves, giving it a significant advantage in developing materials used in certain types of EV batteries.

Despite that resource advantage, much of the region’s advanced battery processing and cell manufacturing supply chain remains dominated by companies from outside Southeast Asia, particularly China, South Korea, and Japan.

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