Tesla To Finalise Plant Location In India By Year-End

With billionaire Elon Reeve Musk evincing keen interest in doing business in India, his automotive giant Tesla Inc is all set to enter the Indian market. When asked about it during an interview with Wall Street Journal, Musk retorted with a euphoric "Absolutely" and said India is very much part of his scheme of things.

What is interesting about his latest statement is it has come almost a year after he had dropped his plans to set up any factory in India. More interestingly, his change of mind has come just a month before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United States.

Reports suggest that Musk is likely pick a new location for a Tesla factory in India by the end of this year. He was asked if India is an interesting choice for a new Tesla location in the wake of his selection of Mexico for the next Tesla Gigafactory in March this year.

Team Visits India

A team of senior Tesla executives visited India last week to explore entering the niche EV market and expand its footprint. The team was in New Delhi for two days and met government officials. It proposed to build a manufacturing facility along with a research and development (R&D) centre here, though it stopped sort of committing to it.

After the meeting, Union Minister for State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that Tesla is "serious" about its India plans. "We have signalled to them that the Government of India is working together and will certainly make whatever ambition or investment objective they have in India a success," Times Now quoted the minister as saying.

Going Beyond China

Tesla's warming up to India again is seen as the company's strategy to diversify and expand beyond China, which is its largest market outside the US. India could certainly be the alternative market as the government is interested more in promoting local manufacturing.

World's largest electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Tesla has several factories in the US, including in Fremont, California. The company also has factories near Berlin, Germany and Shanghai, China.