The long wait for Indian Tesla lovers is almost over. Tesla is coming to participate in the competitive Indian car market in 2021 as indicated by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Musk’s reply to a tweet asking about Tesla’s upcoming timeline for the Indian market was a simple, “Next year for sure.”
Earlier this month, a few of the Indian news outlets had mentioned that Tesla was in preliminary talks with the Indian government officials to open a research and development center in Karnataka, India. The reason why Karnataka was Tesla’s first choice is that the state is the first one to establish and regulate electric vehicle policy.
Following Karnataka’s footsteps, eleven other territories in India have also established the same policy. Tesla has extended its Asian market with the establishment of a manufacturing hub in China. Despite that, it is very rare to see a Tesla roaming the roads of India because the import taxes and fees are so incredibly high, making the electric car way more expensive in the Indian market.
Last August, Musk indicated that he is aware that the importing costs are making the Tesla cars unaffordable for many people. Tesla CEO had also made it clear in the past of its interest in establishing a strong Tesla presence in India.
However, the current government regulations are making it difficult for the company to start its quest of building cars in the South Asian region. Back in 2015, Musk met up with the Indian PM, Narendra Modi which gave the Indian people hope that Tesla will soon come to the Indian market.
Musk had also mentioned that the company was in talks with the Indian government regarding temporary relief on import penalties and restrictions. From the looks of it, the only way to override this situation is to build a Tesla factory in India.
