The project is being initiated by Indonesia Battery Corp (IBC) — a holding company consisting of four state-owned enterprises, namely MIND ID, PT Pertamina, PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara, and PT Aneka Tambang Tbk — and a consortium led by South Korea’s LG Group in what will be an initial investment worth US$1.2 billion.

However, the total investment for the IBC-LG project is estimated to reach US$9.8 billion and employ 1,000 workers.

The Kota Deltamas industrial area in Bekasi, West Java province, has been chosen as the facility site, being only two hours from Jakarta by road, and will span some 33 hectares. The facility is expected to have a capacity of 10 Gigawatt hours (GWh) (one gigawatt equals 1 billion watts of electric power), with the batteries manufactured there slated to be used in Hyundai electric vehicles.

Furthermore, a Chinese consortium, which includes China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), will invest US$5 billion in a lithium battery plant in Indonesia, with production starting in 2024; both CATL and LG supply the batteries for Tesla’s made-in-China models.