Giant Electric Vehicle Battery Factory to Begin Operations Next Month

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Bahlil Lahadalia confirmed that the strategic downstreaming project to build an electric vehicle battery ecosystem, a collaboration between Chinese battery giant CATL and state-owned mining company PT Antam, has been completed. Bahlil stated that the facility is targeted to begin operations and be inaugurated at the end of July 2026. The remarks were made after reporting on the progress of downstreaming programmes to President Prabowo Subianto during a meeting at the palace. “We held a meeting with the President. The first agenda was to evaluate the downstreaming programme. Because several are already underway, we also reported to the President that our downstreaming programme for the car battery ecosystem, a cooperation between CATL and Antam, is finished and, God willing, will be inaugurated at the end of July,” Bahlil said at the palace on Monday (22/6/2026). Beyond discussing downstreaming progress, Bahlil also reported on the state of national energy security to the President. He noted that Indonesia’s energy reserves are currently at a safe level. “Secondly, we also held a meeting with the President to discuss our energy situation. Our energy security resilience is on average above the minimum 20 days,” he said. Bahlil further reported on the stability of electricity services provided by state utility PT PLN to the public. During the meeting, the government and PLN evaluated several issues that could potentially affect the reliability of electricity supply. “Together with PLN’s CEO, we dissected the issues and found three problems. One of them concerns the gas-fired power plants at the start,” he explained. Bahlil elaborated that PLN’s coal consumption actually reaches around 154 million tonnes per year. Meanwhile, the Domestic Market Obligation assignment from the Ministry to mining companies reaches approximately 180 million to 190 million tonnes per year. The volume of coal already contracted by PLN currently stands at around 134 million tonnes. “In reality, PLN’s contract with businesses is 134 million tonnes for one year. Now it’s only June. That should be no issue. It turns out what PLN is complaining about, or requesting, is medium-calorie coal for blending. We have ensured that there is no longer a problem and the government has helped PLN to operate. But beyond that, we are asking PLN to immediately carry out maintenance so that it can truly provide certainty of service to the public,” he said.