Coal giants Indonesia, Australia seek venues to cooperate on EVs, batteries

Indonesia's president has urged Australia to help it ramp up electric vehicle production, as the two coal powerhouses wrapped up bilateral discussions focused heavily on clean energy.

President Joko Widodo met Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Sydney on Tuesday, where the pair also discussed growing tensions in the Asia-Pacific region.

Indonesia and Australia are the world's two biggest thermal coal exporters but are anxious to shed their economic reliance on polluting fossil fuels.

Both leaders agreed clean energy technologies should become a joint priority.

"Indonesia and Australia must build a more substantive and strategic economic cooperation through the joint production of EV batteries," Widodo said following the meeting.

Key components in batteries

Widodo's government has grand ambitions for Indonesia to increase electric vehicle production, making better use of its vast natural deposits of cobalt and nickel.

To do so it would need to secure a reliable pipeline of Australian lithium, another key component in rechargeable batteries.

Australia supplies almost half of the world's lithium, the vast majority of which is currently shipped off to be processed in China.

"There is a lot that Australia can offer Indonesia and the region in the energy transition, including the global move towards electric vehicles," said Albanese.

"We are rich in all of the components and the expertise needed for renewable energy."