Tesla to enter India next year, says Elon Musk

Elon Musk, the co-founder and CEO of automaker Tesla Inc, on Friday tweeted that the company would be entering the Indian market “next year for sure”.

Mr. Musk was replying to a tweet with pictures of a t-shirt with messages ‘India wants Tesla’ and ‘India loves Tesla’.

In response to another tweet in which a Twitter account stated that they were waiting for this piece of news for ages, Mr. Musk added, “Thanks for waiting!”

However, this isn’t the first time that the Tesla chief has hinted at an entry into the Indian market.

Last year, he had tweeted saying that import duties in India were “extremely high (up to 100%), even for electric cars. This would make our cars unaffordable,” amid expectation of a 2020 launch.

Likewise, in 2017, Mr. Musk had said he was hopeful of an India entry in the summer of that year. However, he had later tweeted, “Maybe I'm misinformed, but I was told that 30% of parts must be locally sourced and the supply doesn't yet exist in India to support that.”

Had sought relief

He had further said that the company was in discussions with the Indian government, requesting temporary relief on import penalties/restrictions until a local factory was built.

The Commerce and Industry Ministry, however, had then clarified that it wasn’t accurate to say that the Foreign Direct Investment policy mandates any company to conform to any minimum sourcing of local components if it wanted to establish a manufacturing unit in India.