Tesla's India electric car factory plan gathers speed; prices may start at Rs 20 lakh

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Tesla's highly-anticipated India plan finally seems to be gathering some speed. As per reports, India's commerce and industry ministry is leading the discussions. The government is hoping to put together a 'good deal' while maintaining a level-playing field. After China, the company is looking to turn India into an export base to serve markets in the Indo-Pacific region, ToI reported on July 13.

«Tesla has come to us with an ambitious plan, and we are confident that the movement will be positive this time around, especially as it involves both local manufacturing and exports,» a source told the newspaper. ToI said it had sent a questionnaire to the company’s headquarters, but it remained unanswered at the time of going to press. The fresh development in the company's plans to invest in India comes within weeks of Musk's meeting with PM Modi during the latter's US state tour. Musk, who had said he was a 'fan of Mr Modi', had revealed after their meeting that the PM had been pushing him to raise his bet on India. «He (Mr Modi) really cares about India because he's pushing us to make significant investments in India, which is something we intend to do. We are just trying to figure out the right timing… I am confident that Tesla will be in India and will do so as soon as humanly possible,» Musk had said on June 21. Tesla's dialogue with the government restarted in May when a team from the company visited India ahead of Modi's visit. Tesla's potential bet on India is being seen as in line with a global corporate strategy to diversify their production bases beyond China. If the plan goes through, it will be a big boost for Modi