The Government of India had recently announced that by the year 2030, the cars sold in India shall be only electric. Indian market, though not mature enough, is still largely untamed and has a huge potential. There is almost zero electric car presence in the country other than our very own Mahindra’s Reva. So Tesla, one of the fastest growing electric car maker in the world, showing interest in India is not surprising.
Earlier, this year, CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk had hinted in a tweet that Tesla might start selling its cars in India by end of 2017. That seems a bit far-fetched, mainly considering the complete absence of electric cars infrastructure in the country. The Tesla’s CEO might as well as hinted at setting up a production facility and the right infrastructure before selling cars here. This should be a more likely explanation since India barely has any eco system for electric cars to talk about.
A couple of days earlier, in response to a question when the brand will come to India, Elon Musk had tweeted that the company is currently in talks with the Indian Government requesting for “temporary relief on import penalties and restrictions” on the Tesla’s range of electric cars before he could build a factory in the country. In fact, Tesla seems to be genuinely interested in setting up a Tesla Gigafactory in the country.
It is very clear that Elon Musk has identified the untapped potential in the electric car market in the country. With the current Government too hinting at favoring electric car technology, it is only logical that the biggest name in electric cars manufacturing has set its eyes on the country. In fact, even last month, Elon Musk tweeted in response to a question saying, “Maybe I’m misinformed, but I was told that 30 per cent of parts must be locally sourced and the supply doesn’t yet exist in India to support that.” The Government of India too gave a swift response stating that the FDI policy does not specify so.
With Anand Mahindra already teasing Elon Musk to come set shop and start competing with his Reva range of electric products, the interest level of Tesla on India seems to be on an all-time high!
[Source: Overdrive]