Various foreign automobile companies are entering the potential market of India to expand their business. BYD, one of Tesla’s rivals, is already on that list. See, this time the news of billionaire Elon Musk’s company Tesla moving in that direction has come to the fore. According to an all-India news media report, the company will send a team from the US by the end of April to look for land to set up an electric vehicle factory in the country. They will come up with an investment proposal of 2 billion to 3 billion dollars.
Tesla is sending a team to find factory land in India
The states of India where there are automobile industry taluks will be identified. These include Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. However, no response was received from Tesla in this context. Meanwhile, last month, the Center reduced import duty on certain electric vehicles. The Center has conditionally said that only those companies who invest at least $500 million in India and start production of cars on the country’s soil within 3 years, will get import exemption. So this step of Tesla is considered to be hasty.
As many know, talks were going on between US companies and the central government for doing business in India for a long time. Tesla demanded that the import duty be reduced from 100% to import and sell electric vehicles in this country. But the country’s Ministry of Heavy Industries cleared at that time that Tesla should build a factory and sell cars in the country instead of importing them.
Incidentally, India’s electric car market is small but growing. Tata Motors is currently leading this market. 2 percent of all vehicles sold in 2023 were electric. The government has set a target of increasing it to 30% by 2030. However, Tesla’s entry into the Indian market may give a new direction to the demand for EV models. Elon Musk met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June last year.
