VIAR Motor Indonesia will collaborate with UGM in the development of electric motorbikes to be released next year. Within the next 5 years, PT Triangle Motorindo together with UGM will conduct research and development for electric motorcycles, Viar Pulse types and Q1, mainly in the sectors of engine, controller, Baterry Management System and battery. "Cooperation in the automotive and research field could eventually push the national automotive to have more local components," said Prof. Dr. Suratman, M.Sc., UGM Vice Rector for Research and Community Service, after the signing of the cooperation at UGM Central Building, Tuesday (8/11).
President Director of PT Triangle Morindo, Ignatius Kartiman, said the reason VIAR collaborated with UGM in the development of electric motorbikes was due to UGM image which is considered more advanced in electric cars and motorbikes research. Therefore, the results of research in automotive technology, especially electric vehicles, could help accelerate the development of VIAR electric motorbikes manufacture. "We hope that the campus does not become an ivory tower, but its knowledge can actually be applied in the automotive industry," he said.
The Center for Automotive Innovation, Dr. Jayan Sentanuhady, said research on electric cars and motorcycles have been done long ago. According to the man, the biggest obstacle in the development of electric vehicles is the development of the capacity of the battery, electric motor and controller. "For the price of the battery alone could reach 30 percent of the price of the vehicle, the battery life is limited only 2-3 years," he said.
According to Dr. Jayan, the electric motor battery developed by UGM is currently takes about 4-6 hours to charge with the ability to use the distance of about 70 kilometers. The charging time and battery power for the electric motorbike will continue to be improved so as to be more effective.
Director of Research and Development VIAR Indonesia, Heru Sugiantoro, admitted one of the obstacles for the development of the electric motorbike is the inefficient battery charging time and battery capacity. "Through this cooperation we expect the discovery of the battery size which is not so big but with high power capacity," he said.
As known, PT VIAR Motor Indonesia was established since 2000. The factory is located in the city of Semarang Indonesia with a production capacity of 25 thousand units per month. Currently, the production of all types of motorbike by VIAR reaches about 13 thousand per month. The highest production of VIAR is on three-wheeled motor vehicle types in Indonesia.
However, local components only reached 40-60 percent of the product. The research and development cooperation with UGM is expected that the local component can be increased to 80 percent. "We wanted local components to reach over 80 percent, so we have pride of Indonesia motorbikes," said Heru.