A Delhi University student, Nikhil Birbhan, has been asking Tesla to open a factory in India for quite some time. He also runs a Tesla Club India on a social media platform, which is online community (unofficial fan club). To woo the Tesla boss Elon Musk he created merchandise which said “India wants Tesla” and “India ❤️ Tesla”. Replying to his post Musk said, “Next year for sure”, hinting at Tesla’s entry in the Indian market in 2021. Tesla has reportedly been in talks with Government of India for quite some time to open a research and development centre somewhere in Karnataka. Its preference for Karnataka comes as it being the first state to establish electric vehicle policy.
This is crucial time for Tesla’s entry into India. The Government is currently putting all efforts to encourage its citizens to switch from petrol/diesel vehicles to electric vehicles. Most importantly, the government is taking several steps to boost electric vehicle usage in the country. Indian Government aspires to make all of its vehicles on the road electric by 2030. The target for this electric mobility transformation is roughly 250 million vehicles. In addition, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had upset a lot of automakers while Nitin Gadkari told them that he would require all of India’s cars to be electric by 2030. “I am going to do this, whether you like it or not and I am not going to ask you. I will bulldoze it.”
