Prabowo Unleashes Ambitious National Car Project with Massive 1,000-Acre Automotive Hub in Subang

JAKARTA, Investortrust.id — Indonesia is launching an aggressive state-backed industrial campaign to build its own national car and motorcycle brands. The bold blueprint, officially embedded into the 2027 Macroeconomic Framework and Fiscal Policy Principles (KEM-PPKF), marks a dramatic escalation in President Prabowo Subianto’s economic nationalism and domestic manufacturing strategy.

To anchor this high-stakes initiative, the government is carving out a massive 1,018-acre industrial megaproject in Subang, West Java. The designated automotive hub aims to turn underutilized state assets into a highly localized manufacturing ecosystem designed to challenge global automakers dominant in Southeast Asia.

For global automotive giants and supply chain investors, this is an aggressive pivot toward resource nationalism. Indonesia is no longer content just supplying raw materials like nickel to global EV giants; it wants to capture the entire downstream value chain. If successfully scaled, this domestic automotive hub could dramatically rewrite regional trade flows, displace import dependencies, and create a powerful state-champion competitor in the heart of the ASEAN market.

The Blueprints for Industrial Independence

The national car project, locally dubbed Mobnas, serves as a core pillar of President Prabowo's broader National Priority Work Program (PKPN). The master plan outlines a synchronized effort across multiple ministries to rapidly boost manufacturing value, lock down domestic component supply lines, and catalyze high-skilled employment.

Official state planning documents accessed on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, reveal that the policy is explicitly geared toward structural import substitution to structurally strengthen the nation's trade balance.

"This program aims to increase the value-added of the manufacturing sector, strengthen the domestic supply chain, and create higher-quality jobs," the official government framework detailed on Tuesday.

The state has already finalized pre-feasibility studies and prototype pre-designs over the course of 2026. Rather than relying solely on the national budget, funding for the mid-term automotive rollout will leverage a hybrid model backed by Danantara—the country’s newly minted sovereign wealth and super-holding fund—alongside major private sector syndicates.

Electric Motorcycles Lead the First Wave

While the national car project prepares to break ground, the electric two-wheeler division is already hitting the pavement. Jakarta is focusing heavily on developing and producing tactical electric motorcycles for military and state operational deployment.

PT Len Industri (Persero), the country's state-owned defense electronics conglomerate, has been tapped as the master executor to lead the cross-ministerial rollout. The military-linked tech firm has successfully navigated the pilot phase of production with strong operational validation.

By April 2026, the state enterprise had successfully distributed 3,000 tactical electric motorcycle units nationwide under Phase 1, with Phase 2 contracts entering their final execution stages.

Scaling to Global Prominence

Despite the successful early deployment of the electric motorcycles, the government admits the project is currently operating on a pilot scale. State planners are now aggressively mapping out ways to transition these initial frameworks into mass assembly lines to unlock true economies of scale.

The medium-term targets are highly aggressive. Lawmakers expect the domestic automotive ecosystem to significantly boost manufacturing GDP and drive massive localized employment. By aggressively pushing tech transfers from international electric vehicle players, Indonesia intends to turn its tactical state pilot programs into a highly competitive commercial export machine.