After years of Elon Musk hinting at the idea, it seems Tesla is finally going to make inroads into India.
According to an Economic Times report published at the end of December, India’s transport minister Nitin Gadkari has confirmed the American EV maker will arrive in the country this year.
“American auto major Tesla will have its distribution facility (sale centers) for its cars in India from next year and, considering the demand, it would look into setting up of manufacturing here (too),” Gadkari told the Economic Times.
The first step will see Tesla set up sales operations in the country, and could eventually consider local assembly and manufacturing. Geographically speaking, it makes most sense for the Indian market to be served by Tesla’s China-based factory.
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The first cars that will be made available in the country will be the Model 3. Deliveries should begin in the 2022 financial year. It will reportedly cost₹55-60 lakh (about $75,000, so twice as expensive as the US version of the Model 3, although this isn’t an uncommon phenomenon).
Ol’ Musky should already have a pretty good idea on what demand will look like in the country.
He’s been hinting at the idea for over four years, and many Indians, including some prominent tech company CEOs, have already put deposits down and are waiting for deliveries. So there’s some immediate backlog that looks like it needs to be cleared before new customers can be entertained.
HT – Clean Technica
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Published January 6, 2021 — 14:44 UTC