Tesla will set up a car manufacturing unit in India, the chief minister of the state of Karnataka has said, as the U.S. electric vehicle maker aims to enter one of the most promising car markets in Asia.
“American firm Tesla will set up the car-manufacturing unit in Karnataka,” the Chief Minister of the state of Karnataka, B S Yediyurappa, said over the weekend, as quoted by the Press Trust of India.
According to documents seen by Reuters, the announcement of Tesla’s future EV factory in India was part of a longer document with highlights of the Indian budget.
In January 2021, Tesla incorporated an Indian subsidiary, Tesla Motors India and Energy Private Limited, in the city of Bengaluru in Karnataka.
Setting foot in India has been a goal for Tesla for some time. Elon Musk has also entertained this idea with his Twitter followers. Musk has set sights on the potentially huge but largely undeveloped EV market in India, saying in 2019 that he ‘would love’ Tesla to be there within 2021.
Tesla has not started making electric vehicles in India yet because of some challenging government regulations, Musk said in May 2018.
Replying to a user commenting on a map of Tesla Superchargers that Musk had tweeted, the EV maker’s chief executive wrote back then:
“Would love to be in India. Some challenging government regulations, unfortunately.”
In May 2017, Musk 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.”
Last month, Musk replied “As promised” to a piece on Twitter about Tesla preparing to enter the multi-billion-dollar Indian market.
Dan Ives, managing director at Wedbush Securities, told CNBC last October that India could account for 10 percent of overall demand for Tesla in five years.
