Tesla 'serious' on establishing India production, innovation base, says MoS IT

Elon Musk’s Tesla is serious about its establishing a manufacturing base in India says Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, reports Reuters. The electric vehicle maker's top executives were recently on an India visit to meet ministers regarding setting up manufacturing in India.

As per the report, Tesla officials also discussed the incentives for car and battery manufacturing with Indian officials.

As per the official statement by the minister, “They [Tesla] are very seriously looking at India as a production and innovation base.” This is the first comment by an Indian government official on the talks. He further added, “We have signalled to them that the government of India is working together (and) will certainly make whatever ambitions they have or investment objective they have in India a success.”

The report reveals that the Tesla senior execs proposed to set up a factory to build electric vehicles in India. They are also looking at manufacturing EV batteries.

The minister was asked if they discussed anything other than making cars with Tesla. To this, Chandrasekhar responded said that it was much more than that.

He stated, “You talk about cars, you talk about energy, you talk about manufacturing technology. So all of that figures in the conversation. What they will want to do in India, it's too far for me (to tell) and it's not for me to say.”

Notably, Tesla has been facing headwinds in China due to the current geopolitical tensions. India is posing itself as a viable alternative, both as a market and manufacturing destination. Apple recently doubled down in India by opening two retail stores in the country. The company plans to expand its production in India, in view of added strain to diversify from China. 

Tesla was in talks with the Indian government to seek lower import taxes on cars that can be as much as 100 per cent. As per the report, “Talks became deadlocked as the government is keen for Tesla to make cars locally, while the carmaker said it wanted to export to India first so that it could test demand.”

Apart from the United States, Tesla has manufacturing plants in Shanghai, which is also the largest factory globally, and one in Brandenburg, Germany.

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