The American electric carmaker Tesla will be launching its first model called the Tesla Model 3 by mid-2021 in the Indian market. The company has been looking for commercial properties to open showrooms in three Indian cities. Furthermore, it has hired an executive who will be leading its lobbying and business efforts ahead of its planned entry into the country.
Talking about the commercial properties, the electric carmaker is looking for plots as large as 20,000 - 30,000 square feet each to open showrooms and service centres in metro cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. Tesla has hired a Global property consultant CBRE Group Inc, who has been surveying places for weeks now. They are basically looking for locations that will give the company easier access to affluent customers. Besides these, Tesla has hired Manuj Khurana, a former executive of India’s investment promotion body-Invest India. He will be responsible for leading Tesla’s policy and business development efforts in the country.
Earlier this year, Tesla had officially registered a local company with the Registrar of Companies. The registration has been done under the name of Tesla India Motors and Energy Private Limited. Furthermore, the carmaker has set up an R&D unit in Bengaluru. Sources also state that Tesla is planning to import cars at first. As we all are aware that India has negligible charging infrastructure. Apart from this, the country imposes high taxes on the imported cars. If we look at the sales numbers, India has sold just 5000 EVs out of the total 2.4 million cars last year. But with the sudden urge to control pollution & environmental conditions, the Indian automobile industry is keen on adopting electric mobility.
Thus we can expect Tesla to create a strong position in the domestic market. Also, there are chances that the Indian government might offer incentives to Tesla to ensure that the automaker’s production cost is less in comparison to that in China. This will happen only if Tesla commits to local manufacturing.
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