Get Ready! Purbaya Plans to Provide Subsidies for Electric Car Purchases

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has revealed that he is formulating a policy to provide incentives for electric cars. This is based on the high demand for electric vehicles (EVs). As is known, incentives for EVs have so far only targeted electric motorcycles, with a purchase subsidy of Rp 7 million per unit. This policy has been in place since 2023. “Demand for electric cars also seems strong. We might reconsider how to provide incentives for electric cars in the near future,” Purbaya said at his office in Jakarta on Monday (4/5/2026). He stated that the policy is still in the discussion stage with Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita. Purbaya is confident that the electric car purchase incentive policy will be issued within the next two weeks. “Let’s push it quickly. So, let’s say, two weeks from now it will already be in the incentive system,” Purbaya explained. Previously, Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita had also stated that the government is now considering subsidies for the purchase of all electric vehicle (EV)-based models. Not only electric motorcycles, but electric cars are also included. “Everything must be, everything will be based on electric vehicles,” Agus said at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs office in Jakarta on Tuesday (28/4/2026). According to him, this policy will be pursued considering the directives of President Prabowo Subianto regarding national energy resilience. The ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which disrupts energy commodity trading activities in the Strait of Hormuz, particularly global crude oil, according to Agus, serves as a benchmark that Indonesia must quickly switch to vehicles based on new and renewable energy sources, such as EVs. “When we designed the EV programme earlier, we still used an emissions reduction approach. That’s also important. But now, with our experience saying Hormuz, it must also be linked and perhaps more important for energy resilience,” he explained. “So energy resilience means reducing our dependence on BBM imports,” Agus emphasised.