Farizon begins CKD in Indonesia – Geely commercial EV brand’s first plant outside China, V8E van from RM98k

Geely’s Farizon New Energy Commercial Vehicle Group has officially commenced CKD assembly in Indonesia, with the first locally-assembled Farizon V8E electric van rolling off the line at PT Handal Indonesia Motor’s (HIM) contract assembly plant in Purwakarta, West Java on August 13.

The facility, located around 80 km southeast of Jakarta, hosts Farizon’s first CKD production project outside of China. The company says the move shifts its Indonesian business beyond just selling vehicles towards local manufacturing, supply chains and after-sales services, while giving it room to adapt its products to local road, climate and operating conditions.

“The Indonesia KD project is a concrete implementation of Farizon’s localisation strategy, and is also Farizon’s first overseas KD production project,” said Farizon CEO Fan Xianjun, better known as Mike Fan, adding that the first unit is not an end, but a new starting point for the brand’s local operations.

Assembly is handled by HIM, a contract assembler that also puts together vehicles for several other Chinese brands in Indonesia. The line-off was formalised with the signing of a manufacturing agreement between Farizon, the Arista Group as the brand’s official distributor in Indonesia, and HIM as its local manufacturing partner.

HIM president director Denny Siregar said the company currently has a production capacity of around 88,000 units a year across its Purwakarta and Bekasi facilities, with a workforce of about 1,800. Farizon says the production lines will be upgraded and additional models added at a later stage.

First up is the V8E Cargo Van, a battery-electric light commercial vehicle aimed at last-mile delivery, intra-city logistics and urban-rural goods transport. It measures 5,395 mm long, 1,820 mm wide and 1,985 mm tall with a 3,600 mm wheelbase, and packs an 8.5-cubic-metre cargo box.

Claimed range is 428 km on the WLTP cycle, and the van charges via a CCS2 port like a regular passenger EV, with DC fast charging at up to 100 kW taking the battery from 20-80% in around 30 minutes.

In locally-assembled (CKD) form, the V8E Cargo Van is priced at Rp425 juta (around RM97,700) on-the-road Jakarta, and Farizon is targeting sales of up to 1,000 units a year in Indonesia. The V8E is also offered as a 16-seat passenger van at Rp550 juta (RM126,400), while the F3E Super Cargo light truck – which Farizon says is also entering domestic production alongside the V8E – goes for Rp475 juta (RM109,100).

Farizon only entered Indonesia in January this year through a partnership with the Arista Group (via PT Arista Auto Elektrindo), launching the 16-seat SV – short for SuperVAN – at Rp698 juta (RM160,400). The V7E and the passenger version of the SV followed in April at the Indonesia International Commercial Vehicle Expo, before the V8E made its overseas public debut at GIIAS in late July. So that’s less than eight months from market entry to local assembly.

Notably, the assembly push comes despite Indonesia’s EV incentives not extending to commercial vehicles; Arista Auto Elektrindo director Christoforus Ronny said the absence of incentives has not changed Farizon’s plans, with the company remaining committed to developing environmentally-friendly commercial vehicles in the country.

The Purwakarta operation comes as Farizon’s global business gathers pace. The company rolled out its 600,000th new energy commercial vehicle on August 10, and sold 18,486 units in July for a January-July total of 107,589 units, up 37.8% year-on-year. First-half exports more than doubled, up 123%, with the brand claiming the top spot by export volume in 28 countries and regions including the UK, Australia and the UAE.

Farizon says Indonesia will serve as a base to deepen its cooperation across ASEAN. Is Malaysia part of those plans?

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