Kupastuntas.co, Bandar Lampung - President Joko Widodo has signed Presidential Instruction Number 7 of 2022 concerning the use of electric vehicles as official vehicles in central and regional government agencies.

When questioned by Assistant I for Government and Welfare of the Lampung Provincial Government, Qodratul Ikhwan, explained that this year his party had not used electric vehicles as official vehicles for officials in the local environment.

"We still welcome the direction from the President regarding the use of electric vehicles and this will probably be implemented in stages. But not this year because our vehicles are still quite good," he said when asked for a statement, Wednesday (8/2/2023).

Qodratul explained that one of the reasons behind not implementing the use of electric vehicles was the lack of Public Electric Vehicle Charging Stations (SPKLU).

"Users of electric cars also have to look at other things, not just the car. But also the availability of refueling itself, is it all available at the Fuel Filling Stations (SPBU), isn't that certain? And this is still minimal in Lampung," he explained.

According to him, currently the Lampung Provincial Government has started using official vehicles with a rental system. Where it is considered more effective and cheaper maintenance costs when compared to vehicles purchased using the regional budget.

"So indeed the availability for refueling from electric cars is not evenly distributed in Lampung. But now some of the old official vehicles have been removed and replaced with a rental system and this is at least 5 years old," he said. (*)