Elon Musk has confirmed his plans for Tesla centers in five states of India with a two-word tweet stating, “As promised”. Musk wrote in a thread linking to a blog that says, “Tesla cars will be expensive but may eventually become more affordable for the Indian middle-class when the company starts production.” This was his first reaction after the news broke of Tesla registering for an office in Bengaluru (India) on Tuesday.
Following the blog that was posted to a Tesla fan site called Tesmanian, this multi-million dollar company is in talks with five states to open stores, an office, an R&D center and a factory for production.
The piece also explains Tesla’s focus on a “wealthy segment” in a country where there are vast economic disparities. “Many people assume that if most of the country’s population is mid-income to low-income, then there is no market for Tesla. However, they need to understand that the company is not aimed at selling cars to the entire population of India. In fact, out of 1.387 billion people, the producer is targeting a smaller (relative to the entire population), but a rather wealthy segment of the population,” wrote Tesmanian. “As sad as it may be, out of this population, about 1.3 billion people cannot afford a car like Tesla. However, there is still a market for the company of around 85 million people who can afford to buy a premium car.”
The blog says India has a vast market for Tesla’s development. Many of the country’s richest people have been waiting for the company to come here for several years now.
On Friday, Twitter handle of Tata Motors Electric Mobility, put out the following tweet –
However, the company deleted the tweet a couple of hours later.
Earlier this week, it also emerged that the California based automotive conglomerate has registered its Indian arm amid indications that the company is set to enter the country’s automobile market. The firm has registered Tesla India Motors and Energy Pvt. Ltd. with Registrar of Companies (RoC) Bangalore.
Through the history of Elon Musk and his tweets, it is quite evident that the launch of Tesla in India has been awaited for a long time now. In 2018, Musk had cited the challenging regulatory environment as the reason for not being able to enter India. However, in 2019, while replying to a query he had tweeted the following –
Lastly in November 2020, Musk confirmed on Twitter replying to a fan who asked about the progress of the company’s India entry plans. The tweet was: “Yea(h) … Next year for sure”.
India is also looking to create charging infrastructure for a wider acceptance of electric vehicles. In November, the government invited bids for setting up advanced chemistry cell battery storage facilities in the public-private partnership.
