Indonesia Aims to Produce Electric Sedans by 2028
JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – President Prabowo Subianto has targeted Indonesia to start mass-producing electric sedans in 2028. However, this ambition will not be achieved instantly but through a gradual strategy that begins with strengthening commercial electric vehicles.
The target was announced by Prabowo during the inauguration of VKTR’s commercial electric vehicle assembly facility in Magelang, Central Java, on Thursday (9/4/2026).
On that occasion, he directly inspected the production line, which is currently focused on electric buses and trucks.
According to him, developing electric vehicles in the commercial segment is an important foundation before Indonesia enters the passenger vehicle market. Buses and trucks are considered to have a strategic role in building the ecosystem, from production and supply chains to technological readiness.
This step is also seen as more realistic, as commercial vehicles can provide faster impacts on reducing emissions and oil and gas fuel (BBM) consumption, while encouraging large-scale production utilisation.
Currently, the production capacity for commercial electric vehicles is said to reach 10,000 electric bus units. On the other hand, the government is also continuing to push for an increase in domestic component levels (TKDN), which is currently around 40 percent.
Prabowo targets TKDN to increase to 60 percent in the next two years, even up to 80 percent in the subsequent stage. This increase is key to strengthening the domestic industry while reducing dependence on imports.
He emphasised that electric vehicle development is part of a grand strategy towards national energy independence. Electrification is expected to reduce dependence on fossil-based BBM, which has so far been dominated by imports.
Once the ecosystem is established, expansion into passenger vehicles such as electric sedans can be carried out more maturely.
The plan to produce electric sedans is quite interesting because it differs from the car market demographics in Indonesia. Car sales trends in Indonesia are dominated by multi-purpose vehicles (MPV) and sport utility vehicles (SUV). Meanwhile, sedans contribute less than 1 percent of the total market.