Historical Timeline

General Motors in Indonesia

The First Assembly Plant in Indonesia

 General Motors was registered as a limited company in Indonesia by the name of N.V.
General Motors Java Handel Maatschappij on 3 February 1927.
 General Motors introduced the first 6-cylinder car in 1929.
 High demands for Chevrolet units in the Netherlands East Indies (i.e. Indonesia) drove
General Motors to build the first assembly plant at Tanjung Priok in 1938. This was the first
car assembly plant ever built in Indonesia.
 The United States declared World War II on 8 December 1941.
 Truck inventory, tools, machinery and equipment from the car assembly plant were
requisitioned by the Netherlands East Indies Army and transferred to inland locations near
Solo.
 Prior to Japanese occupation of Java on 9 March 1942, all inventories and machineries
were destroyed under orders of the Netherlands East Indies Army.
 Operations of the N.V. General Motors Java Handel Maatschappij were suspended on 24
March 1942.
 To maintain the operations of General Motors in the Netherlands East Indies, General
Motors Overseas Operations established the Batavia Branch. The branch was then
renamed into the Djakarta Branch. Its main objective was to conduct normal operations of
General Motors assembly plant where as N.V. General Motors Java Handel Maatschappij
was to protect the corporation’s pre-war assets.
 The Djakarta Branch had employed an average of 1,012 Indonesian nationals in its factory
and office. It also managed to establish a network of 41 dealers with 3,500 employees.
 Until 1953, The Djakarta Branch had produced and distributed a total of 5,306 passenger
vehicles, 14,050 commercial vehicles, 3,811 commercial bodies as well as 202 diesel power
and marine units.
 Shareholders meeting on 14 April 1956, decided that N.V. General Motors Java Handel
Maatschappij as well as the Djakarta Branch would be placed in liquidation. Assets such as
the branch manager’s residence, including furniture, were sold to the United States
Embassy in Indonesia.
A New Beginning

 PT General Motors Buana Indonesia was established in January 1993. It is 60% owned by
General Motors and the rest owned by PT Garmak Motor of Indonesia.
 In 1994, General Motors Indonesia introduced its first passenger car, the Opel Vectra.
 The first right-hand drive Opel Blazer was introduced in 1995.
 In 1997, General Motors Indonesia became 100% owned by General Motors.
 In 2002, General Motors Indonesia launched the Chevrolet brand as a replacement to its
Opel brand and made it the core brand of General Motors in Indonesia.
 2005 - Manufacturing in GM Indonesia shut down.
 2006 - GM Indonesia became a national sales company (PT GM AutoWorld Indonesia).
 In line with the General Motors philosophy – ‘build where we sell and source where we build’
– General Motors Indonesia announced its plan to build an assembly plant at Bekasi, West
Java in August 2011.
 The construction of the Bekasi plant, situated about 16 kilometers outside the capital city
Jakarta, was completed on 27 July 2012. The facility manufactures the Chevrolet Spin and
variants off the same platform.
 Of the total production by the facility, 80 percent is bound for domestic market while 20 percent
will be exported. The products will be exported to five markets including Thailand, Philippines
and South Africa (2014).
 As of May 2013, the facility employs approximately 700 people, more than 95 percent of which
are local employees. This will be expanded to more than 800 employees when GM starts a
second production shift in the middle of 2013.
 A total of 43 local (Indonesian) auto-part makers are currently supplying GM’s Bekasi facility.
There are plans to expand the local supplier-base up to 50 to meet requirements by Bekasi
and other GM facilities. Some local suppliers are already supplying parts to GM Thailand.