indonesia is finalising a new set of incentives to attract investment from manufacturers of electric vehicles evs a senior minister said on tuesday adding the government is still in talks with major companies like tesla and byd speaking at a nickel industry conference hosted by cnbc indonesia coordinating minister of maritime affairs and natural resources luhut pandjaitan said the incentives will be benchmarked against those offered by regional rivals thailand and vietnam but did not provide details indonesia the largest economy in southeast asia has been trying to attract ev makers to invest in the country enticing them with its rich nickel reserves the worlds biggest which can be processed into ev batteries however some automakers like chinas byd have instead chosen to invest in thailand the regions automotive hub tomorrow we are going to finalise incentives that we are going to give to any ev investment in indonesia luhut said adding they were awaiting president joko widodos approval luhut said he will meet byd executives in chinas city of chengdu on thursday and a meeting is also scheduled on august 3 with teslas chief executive elon musk in california united states indonesia has been wooing tesla for years hoping to host an asian production hub for the american ev maker tesla has been in talks with indian officials for an investment in an ev factory there