‘Tesla Would Love to Be in India’: Elon Musk Laments Regulations
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says that his company faces government regulation challenges in India.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk has admitted that he would love to enter the Indian market but his company is facing challenges to make the move. The electric car maker has been looking to make inroads into one of the biggest markets in the world, but various issues have hampered its progress.
Musk clarified the current situation in tweet on Wednesday, citing challenges with adhering to the Indian government’s regulations.
He even added that along with his Chief Financial Officer, Deepak Ahuja from India, they are looking at the possibility of coming to India, as soon as he feels there will be takers for his product. Musk responded with this statement after one user from India, highlighted that Tesla Supercharger stations aren’t coming to India anytime soon.
This isn’t the first time when Elon Musk has pointed out the challenges Tesla faces to launch in India. After initially claiming that Tesla will come to India this summer, in February 2017, not much has developed in this regard since then.
Musk had even cited the stringent local sourcing norms of the Indian government as the reason Tesla had to back out from considering India as a viable market for its vehicles.
This revelation was later clarified by the Make in India department of the government, giving him a crash course on how things work. The Make in India Twitter handle said Musk was wrongly informed about the regulations that are in place for automotive companies.
However, Tesla calls itself a technology company – and hence the 30 percent locally-sourced components rule applies. This would also help it attract lower duties. However, it would take some effort to convince the Indian government that a company that sells cars is actually a technology company.
As a car company, if it was to import and sell its cars here, it would have to charge very high prices – a Model S would cost upwards of Rs 1 crore in India. That wouldn’t work well for volume. The Model 3, if imported, would still cost over Rs 60 lakh. Local assembly would be necessary to target a lower sticker price.
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