Indonesia's Second EV Battery Plant Set to Operate Soon, Here's the Owner
Indonesia will soon have a large-scale electric vehicle battery plant located in Karawang, West Java. The production facility is managed by PT Contemporary Amperex Technology Indonesia Battery (CATIB) to support the national electric vehicle industry.
Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Bahlil Lahadalia confirmed that construction of the plant is complete and it is now ready to operate. The government is currently waiting for President Prabowo Subianto’s schedule to officially inaugurate the facility.
“It is ready to be inaugurated. We are just waiting for the right time from the President. The plant is finished. If you want to see it, please do,” Bahlil said when met at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources some time ago.
He said this battery plant will be the second large-scale facility of its kind in Indonesia. Previously, an electric vehicle battery plant operated by PT Hyundai LG Indonesia (HLI) Green Power in Karawang began operations and was inaugurated in July 2024.
“So we have built two battery plants. One is LG when I was still Minister of Investment. One is CATL now that I am Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources. This is what is called downstreaming, where we build the entire battery ecosystem in our country,” Bahlil said.
CATIB is a joint venture between Indonesia Battery Corporation (IBC) and CBL, a subsidiary of China’s largest battery producer, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Limited (CATL).
IBC President Director Aditya Farhan Arif previously said the first-phase production capacity of the battery plant reaches 6.9 gigawatt hours (GWh). When met in June, he said the plant’s progress had reached 90%.
He said the plant will not have difficulty finding a market when it begins operations, as buyers are already in place. The battery industry concept is built on existing demand, allowing it to run immediately.
“In principle, buyers are ready, so when it is ready for commercial operation, we will immediately produce commercially. In fact, trial production is already underway at the CATIB plant,” he said.
He also explained that the nickel value chain from mining to battery production involves a lengthy process, starting from mining activities, followed by initial processing, then production of battery materials, and finally battery production.
CATIB sits at the most downstream position in that value chain. Aditya said the company’s presence is an important part of the overall integrated nickel industry ecosystem.
“CATIB’s capacity in the first phase is 6.9 GWh and we will soon expand it to at least 15 GWh. If we convert 15 GWh into electric vehicles, it is roughly equivalent to around 250,000 electric vehicles,” he said.
Construction of the plant at Artha Industrial Hill (ALH) and Karawang New Industry City (NICC) in Karawang, West Java, began on 29 June 2025. Prabowo officiated the groundbreaking at that time.
This means that if the plant begins operations this August, it took only about 14 months to build.
Meanwhile, Indonesia is building an integrated EV battery plant ecosystem. The project is touted as the largest in Southeast Asia, supported by nickel as the main raw material for battery components.
Total investment in the integrated battery project reaches US$5.9 billion. The project consists of six joint ventures from upstream to downstream.
The details are as follows:
Upstream:
JV 1: Nickel mining project of PT Sumberdaya Arindo (SDA) with production capacity of 7.8 million wet metric tonnes (wmt) of saprolite nickel and 6 million wmt of limonite, totalling 13.8 million wmt, with PT Antam holding 51% and CBL 49%. This project has been in production since 2023.
JV 2: Rotary Kiln Electric Furnace (RKEF) nickel smelter project of PT Feni Haltim (FHT) with capacity of 88,000 tonnes of refined nickel alloy per year, with CBL holding 60% and PT Antam 40%. This project targets initial production in 2027.
JV 3: High Pressure Acid Leaching (HPAL) nickel smelter project of PT Nickel Cobalt Halmahera (HPAL JVCO) with capacity of 55,000 tonnes of MHP per year, with CBL holding 70% and PT Antam 30%. This project targets initial production in 2028.
Downstream:
JV 4: Battery materials project producing cathode materials, cobalt sulphate, and ternary precursors with capacity of 30,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide, located in East Halmahera, North Maluku, with CBL holding 70% and PT IBC 30%. This project targets initial production in 2028.
JV 5: Battery cell project of PT Contemporary Amperex Technology Indonesia Battery (CATIB) located at Artha Industrial Hill (AIH) and Karawang New Industry City (KNIC). The project is divided into phase 1 with capacity of 6.9 GWh per year and phase 2 with capacity of 8.1 GWh per year, totalling 15 GWh per year. CBL holds 70% and PT IBC 30%. The project targets initial production in 2026 for phase 1 and 2028 for phase 2.
JV 6: Battery recycling project located in East Halmahera, North Maluku, with capacity of 20,000 tonnes of metal per year, with CBL holding 60% and PT IBC 40%. This project targets initial production in 2031.