EV King Tesla Might Hit Indian Roads Next Year Reports suggesting Tesla's entry to India have surfaced, after Musk tweeted "Next year for sure" while replying to a query on a fan page
By Debarghya Sil •
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Electric vehicle manufacturing giant Tesla might enter India next year. The popular car manufacturer headed by billionaire and serial entrepreneur Elon Musk stands to change the EV space in the country, which is still at a nascent stage.
Reports suggesting Tesla's entry to India surfaced, after Musk on Twitter wrote "Next year for sure" while replying to what may seem like a Tesla fan page in India asking when the company will arrive in the country.
He replied to one of the Indian twitter accounts "Thanks for waiting".
Musk, who has a follower count of 39.2 million on Twitter, had last year in March responded to a question about entering India. "Would love to be there this year. If not, definitely next," he said.
Reports suggest that Karnataka has offered the California-headquartered company a space to set up its gigafactory. According to a report by Economic Times, in the gigafactory, Tesla will manufacture electric cars and batteries.
The company has already held preliminary talks with the state for a research and innovation unit in the city.
Gaurav Gupta, principal secretary of Karnataka's commerce and industries department had told the national daily that the city has a "favourable' ecosystem for electric vehicles and the company can leverage it.
Bengaluru, which is popular as Silicon Valley of India, already houses several EV manufactures such as Ather, Ola Mobility, and others.
Tesla's entry to India can also be seen in response to the central government's encouragement for purchasing EVs.
However, what the company's sales number would be in a country dominated by fossil fuel vehicles is yet to be seen.
