Tesla’s efforts to enter the Indian market are ramping up with two senior executives from the car manufacturer recently meeting with officials from the nation’s investment promotion arm.
In May, Tesla made a proposal to establish a large factory in India some 12 months after it paused its plans to enter the market. Last year, Tesla had hoped that it could sell its EVs in India by importing them from the United States and China and asked for it to be exempt from local important tariffs set as high as 100%. Indian officials refused to make such an exception.
Reuters now understands that Tesla’s senior public policy and business development executive Rohan Patel and vice president for supply chain Roshan Thomas are currently in Delhi and have had talks with Invest India, including its chief executive Nivruti Rai. Although details about these meetings have been kept private, Tesla is also believed to be meeting with Indian commerce minister Piyush Goyal about the land allotment for a factory and how to establish an EV supply chain in the country.
Read: Tesla Makes New Proposal To Establish A Factory In India
The automaker is thought to be interested in producing its long-awaited, entry-level EV in India. It has been working on this new model since 2020, if not even earlier, and has asserted that it will hit the market with a starting price of around $25,000. Achieving such a price point would be remarkable for an EV and mean it would cost just a few thousand dollars more than an entry-level Toyota Corolla.
Earlier this year Elon Musk asserted that this new model will have the capabilities to be “used almost entirely in autonomous mode” and even if that is true, it would likely only be possible for vehicles equipped with Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system which is currently a $15,000 option.
