How to Open an Electric Vehicle Charging Station (SPKLU) in Indonesia

Updated July 2026 with the latest SPKLU statistics and the KBLI 2025 business classifications.

Indonesia’s public charging network is scaling fast. As of May 2026, there are 4,892 public charging stations (SPKLU) across the country — up from just 624 at the end of 2023. In 2025 alone, PLN and its partners added 4,655 charging units across 3,007 locations, a 44% jump in a single year. That fleet spans the full technology range — 633 ultra-fast, 482 fast, 2,681 medium, and 859 standard charging units, according to PLN’s Director of Retail and Commerce, Adi Priyanto. And the government is not slowing down: the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) targets roughly 62,900 SPKLU by 2030 — more than twelve times today’s network.

That gap between today’s network and the 2030 target is the opportunity. The sector is open to foreign investors, EV charging now has its own KBLI code under the 2025 classification, and the licensing path — while demanding — is entirely navigable. This guide covers both routes into the market, the exact business classifications and licences involved, capital expectations, and the questions we hear most often from clients.

Two ways to run an EV charging business in Indonesia

Before anything else, decide how you want to operate. This single choice determines your licensing burden, your capital exposure, and your timeline.

• Route A — Operate independently. You establish your own company, obtain a business licence for electricity supply (IUPTLU), and run the stations yourself. Full control and full margin, but you carry the licensing and technical-compliance load.
• Route B — Partner with PLN. You supply land and/or hardware, and PLN handles the electricity-supply licence and integration into the PLN Mobile app. Lighter regulatory burden, faster to launch, shared economics.

Most new entrants — especially those testing a few sites — start with a PLN partnership. Operators building a branded, multi-site network usually want the independent route. We help clients model both before committing.

The three PLN partnership schemes

PLN runs its SPKLU partner program under three standard schemes. The difference comes down to who provides the land and who provides the charger:

Under every scheme, PLN owns the customer-facing integration through PLN Mobile, which is where drivers find, activate, and pay for charging. Your revenue share depends on how much of the land and hardware you bring. PLN built most of 2025’s growth through exactly these partnerships — which is why the program is straightforward for a serious partner to join. If a partnership fits your plan, the first questions to settle are: do you already have a location, and which scheme matches what you are willing to invest?

The independent route, step by step

If you would rather own the operation, the sequence is:

1. Establish a PT PMA. A foreign-owned limited liability company is the vehicle for foreign investment into EV charging. Company registration in Indonesia is the foundation for every licence that follows.
2. Secure a location. You need a site that suits both your commercial plan and the electrical and grid requirements. A public charging station generally needs a minimum footprint of around 42 m² under the licensing standards.
3. Import your charging equipment. Chargers, cabling, and related hardware are imported. If you do not yet hold the import licences, an Importer of Record lets you bring equipment in legally without setting up your own import operation first.
4. Obtain your location and operating licences. Environmental clearance plus the electricity-supply business licence (IUPTLU), issued through the OSS system based on your feasibility study.

KBLI codes for an EV charging business

This is where the 2025 classification matters — and where a lot of older guidance is now wrong. Under KBLI 2025, EV charging has its own dedicated code:

• KBLI 35133 — Operation of Charging Facilities or Stations for Electric Vehicles and Equipment (Pengoperasian Fasilitas atau Stasiun Pengisian Daya untuk Kendaraan dan Peralatan Listrik). This is the primary code for running an SPKLU. It carries a high risk level at every business scale, which drives the licensing requirements below.
• KBLI 35114 — Sale of Electric Power (Penjualan Tenaga Listrik), if you sell electricity to end users.
• KBLI 27203 — Manufacture of Batteries for Electric Motor Vehicles, if your plan extends into EV battery production (distinct from the generic battery code 27201).

All of these are open to 100% foreign ownership. We checked each against Indonesia’s Positive Investment List — none of them appear on the closed, conditional, partnership-required, or SME-reserved lists. That makes a wholly foreign-owned EV charging business genuinely achievable.

Licences and obligations, in detail

Because EV charging is a high-risk electricity activity, the OSS system asks for substantially more than a standard NIB. Expect the following.

Environmental clearance

Depending on scale and location, you will need an environmental approval — an AMDAL (environmental impact assessment) or the lighter UKL-UPL — confirming the project’s impact and how you will mitigate it.

Electricity-supply business licence (IUPTLU)

The licence is issued on the strength of a feasibility study (Studi Kelayakan Usaha Penyediaan Tenaga Listrik), which must be in Indonesian and contain:

• a financial feasibility assessment,
• an operational feasibility assessment, and
• a grid interconnection study.

Alongside the study, the OSS licence for KBLI 35133 also requires:

• a Business Area designation (Wilayah Usaha) set by the Minister,
• a Power Supply Business Plan (Rencana Usaha Penyediaan Tenaga Listrik), and
• a grid-lease agreement where you rent network capacity from the network owner at the regulated tariff.

Ongoing obligations

Once licensed, an operator must:

• hold a Certificate of Operational Worthiness (Sertifikat Laik Operasi / SLO) for the installation,
• use technical personnel who hold a Competency Certificate (Sertifikat Kompetensi),
• use equipment that meets the applicable Indonesian National Standard (SNI),
• report operations periodically to the Director General, and
• renew the licence within its validity — electricity-supply licences run for up to 30 years.

None of this is a barrier for a serious operator, but it is why the independent route needs proper preparation. We assemble the feasibility study, coordinate the SLO and competency requirements, and manage the OSS submission end to end.

Capital and cost

As a foreign-owned company, an EV charging PT PMA is subject to the standard PMA investment threshold — an investment plan above IDR 10 billion per business line, per location, excluding land and buildings — with paid-up capital set accordingly. For a capital-intensive activity like charging infrastructure, that threshold is usually met comfortably by the hardware and installation spend itself.

Actual project cost depends heavily on the route (independent vs. PLN partnership), the number of sites, and the charger type. Rather than publish a figure that will not match your plan, we scope it with you and quote against your specific setup.

How long does it take?

Company formation and the base registrations take a matter of working days. The gating item is the IUPTLU and its feasibility study — the timeline there depends on how quickly the study, the Wilayah Usaha designation, and the supporting documents come together. A PLN partnership is materially faster, since PLN carries the electricity-supply licensing.

Set up your EV charging business with Emerhub

Whether you run independently on your own IUPTLU or partner with PLN, Emerhub handles the full setup — PT PMA formation, KBLI selection, Importer of Record for your hardware, the feasibility study, and the OSS licensing. Setting up in Indonesia? Book a 30-minute call with the team that does the work.