Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed plans that Tesla cars will begin to be available in India starting January 2021.
Earlier this month, while reacting to a tweet by Tesla Club India on a scheduled Tesla entry to the Indian market, Musk had said: “Will release order configurator probably in Jan.”
This means Tesla sales teams are working on building custom sales and production orders for the India market, ensuring orders are complete and validated once the configuration is finished. The move will also open India to select as one of the countries where Tesla cars can be purchased.
However, whether Musk will announce a Tesla plant in India to push Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s domestic manufacturing dream is not yet clear. If Tesla chooses to source them from other facilities, Gigafactory in Shanghai, China is the nearest one.
On several occasions, Musk has expressed interest in bringing Tesla to India, but in a 2018 Twitter post, he cited “some challenging government regulations” as a hurdle.
He also criticised the foreign direct investment norms for the delay in the electric car maker’s entry into the Indian market.
This exciting announcement by Tesla comes at a time when India is ramping up charging infrastructure for electric vehicles with the aim of significantly increasing the proportion of electric vehicles plying on the roads.
In 2015, Modi visited Tesla headquarters at Palo Alto, California and met Musk for a tour of the company’s electric car plant. Currently, China is the only Asian market where Tesla is present.
IANS
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