ITB and Gotion Indonesia Materials have signed an MoU in the Education and Research Sector: NCSTT will be the Implementor of The Projects.

BANDUNG, itb.ac.id—The Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) signed an MoU with PT Gotion Indonesia Materials on Saturday (29/7/2023) in Bandung. The collaboration established is related to the development of battery product research as well as research activities at the ITB Science and Techno Park (STP).

The MoU between ITB and PT Gotion Indonesia Materials was signed directly by the Chair of Institute for Science and Technology Development (LPIT) Prof. Ir. Taufan Marhaendrajana, M.Sc., Ph.D., and Executive Director of PT Gotion Indonesia Materials, Antony. National Center of Sustainable Transportation Technology (NCSTT) will be the implementor of the projects in collaboration with the Research and Development Division of PT Gotion Indonesia Materials.

Gotion High-Tech is a top-tier Global company that produces electric vehicle batteries and energy storage systems. Its main products include materials of LFP and NCM, battery cells, battery packs, battery management systems (BMS), and energy storage units. These products are widely used for electric vehicles, commercial vehicles, special vehicles (heavy equipment/trucks), two-wheeled vehicles, and other electric vehicles.

Gotion High-Tech has operated 14 manufacturing facilities worldwide, with a target capacity of 300 GWh by 2025. In addition, Gotion High-Tech has established 8 research and development centers in Hefei, Shanghai, Silicon Valley, Cleveland, Tsukuba, Singapore, Europe, and Germany.

Headquartered in Jakarta, PT Gotion Indonesia Materials has been operating since 2022 as a production and operational center for Gotion High-Tech in the Southeast Asia region.

According to the Chairman of LPIT ITB, collaboration between ITB and PT Gotion Indonesia Materials will be mutually beneficial for both parties. For ITB, this collaboration will strengthen the programs run by ITB, namely in the fields of research, education, technology, and talent search.

“In the education sector, one example, especially this year, is the establishment of the Battery Technology Master's Program. The involvement of Gotion's experience and technology will certainly enrich the program. "The relevance of this program is increasingly evident with the involvement of national and international industries," he said.

The presence of PT Gotion Indonesia Materials in the circle of cooperation with ITB will also provide high enthusiasm for talents at ITB to increase their capacity and competence in the field of battery product development and then, potentially be involved in the Research and Technology at the Science and Techno Park (STP) ITB.

Battery pack designs for two- and three-wheeled vehicles as first project

The main problem of electric motorcycle commercialization in Indonesia is the price which is considerably more expensive than internal combustion engine motorcycles. Battery, as the main component of electric motorcycles that contributes around 40% of total production cost, still has a high price relative to battery prices in other countries. The main reason is the supply chain in Indonesia that is not effective and efficient, especially for imported batteries. Many battery design variants used in the motorcycle also increase design cost while lower unit production directly increases the battery price. Therefore, to reduce the battery price, cheap assembled batteries often fill the market by taking benefit from the weak implementation of safety standardization, even though the safety aspect of battery use is very important because it can cause fatal accidents.

NCSTT and Gotion research team will propose a universal battery packing design that can be used on most of the electric motorbike and three-wheeled vehicle population. As for the three-wheeled electric vehicle, NCSTT has developed E-Trike, a three-wheeled electric vehicle designed for goods and tourist transportation. The E-trike will take benefit from the implementation of the universal battery pack i.e. increasing the local contents (TKDN) and safety. The battery will be designed to have a maximum level of safety to ensure driving safety. At the production stage, the supply-chain flow is expected to be shorter by involving PT Gotion Indonesia Materials as an industrial partner.

ITB together with PT. Gotion Indonesia Materials is committed to carrying out this research with their respective contributions. The projects can be extended to supply batteries for other kinds of electric vehicles such as electric buses, which are also currently developed by NCSTT. The batteries for electric buses will use a higher energy capacity version of the universal battery pack.

This news is translated from itb.ac.id in Bahasa Indonesia with editing.