Prabowo wants Indonesian-built electric cars on the line by 2028

President Prabowo Subianto said on Thursday that Indonesia will start mass production of its own electric cars by 2028 at the latest. Unlike most announcements of this kind, this one has an address. The South China Morning Post reports that a factory complex is going up in Subang, West Java, where the first 60 hectares are built to turn out up to 50,000 cars a year. The site can later stretch to 539 hectares and 300,000 cars a year.

The targets around the factory are far bigger than the factory itself. The government wants 13 million electric motorcycles and 2 million electric cars on Indonesian roads by 2030. Prabowo also launched a national electric motorcycle programme, meant to keep the whole chain at home: assembly, batteries, charging points and after-sales service. Motorcycles carry the larger number for an obvious reason. They are how most Indonesians actually get to work.

Money is the part that decides whether any of it happens. Rosan Roeslani, chief executive of Danantara, said state-owned banks will offer cheap vehicle loans with longer repayment periods so people can afford electric scooters. Danantara is the sovereign wealth fund, a large pool of state money invested on the country's behalf, and it now sits close to the middle of Prabowo's economic plans. Stretching a loan over more months lowers the monthly payment, but it usually raises the total interest paid by the end. The 2030 targets are four years out; the Subang plant is still under construction.

Why it matters

If you ride a motorcycle to work, this policy reaches you as a loan offer long before it reaches you as an Indonesian-made car. Compare the total cost with interest, not the monthly figure, and check that charging exists near your home or your route before you sign anything. For anyone in Subang or looking for factory work, the honest test is whether that plant opens and hires on schedule, because every number above depends on it.