Elon Musk's Tesla has begun talks with the Indian government about a proposed investment to build a car plant there with an annual production capacity of up to 500,000 electric vehicles, with pricing starting at "as low as" Rs 20,00,00.
According to government sources, the corporation, which has a substantial presence in China and operates facilities there, is also considering using India as an export hub in order to sell cars to nations in the Indo-Pacific area. “Tesla has come to us with an ambitious plan, and we are confident that the movement will be positive this time around, especially as it involves both local manufacturing as well as exports,” a source said.
The commerce and industry ministry is leading the talks on the issue and the government is hoping to put together a “good deal” while maintaining a level-playing field. The turnaround in Tesla’s plans comes within weeks of Musk’s meeting with PM Modi during the latter’s high profile visit to the US last month.
Musk had then said that he was a “fan of Mr Modi” and added that the PM had been pushing him to invest in India. “He [Mr Modi] really cares about India because he’s pushing us to make significant investments in India, which is something we intend to do. We are just trying to figure out the right timing… I am confident that Tesla will be in India and will do so as soon as humanly possible,” Elon Musk had said on June 21.
Tesla had reopened the dialogue channels with the government in May when a team from the company visited India a month ahead of Modi’s visit.