Tesla would love to be in India: Elon Musk

Tesla would love to be in India: Elon Musk
x
Highlights

India has been wooing Tesla Inc to set up a factory on its soil, but billionaire Elon Musk isn’t falling for it. At least not yet.

New Delhi: India has been wooing Tesla Inc to set up a factory on its soil, but billionaire Elon Musk isn’t falling for it. At least not yet.

In a tweet, the Chief Executive Officer of the electric vehicle maker said a restrictive policy environment in India is proving to be a hurdle for local production. Earlier this month, the Palo Alto, California-based company moved a step closer to establishing a factory in China, which would be its first production facility outside US shores, as the Asian giant eases rules for carmakers such as Tesla.

“Would love to be in India,” Musk said in the Twitter posting. “Some challenging government regulations, unfortunately,” he wrote, adding Tesla will enter the country as soon as chief financial officer Deepak Ahuja, who is from India, believes it’s time. "Deepak Ahuja, our CFO, is from India. Tesla will be there as soon as he believes we should," added Elon Musk, also the SpaceX founder.

Ahuja, a seasoned auto industry finance executive with 15 years’ experience at Ford Motor Company, joined Tesla Motors as Chief Financial Officer in 2010. Ahuja works out of Tesla's San Carlos headquarters. He quit Tesla in 2015, only to join it back in 2017.

Last year, Elon Musk said Tesla's cars could come to India the summer but there has not been any further development. The CEO later blamed the FDI norms in India for delay in Tesla's entry into the Indian market. "Maybe I'm misinformed, but I was told that 30% of parts must be locally sourced and the supply doesn't yet exist in India to support that," he had tweeted.

Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assertions that “more than 1,400 archaic laws that were an obstacle to doing business have been abolished,” Asia’s third-largest economy isn’t the top pick for many foreign investors. Musk said last year that Tesla was in discussions with the government, requesting temporary waiver of import penalties and other restrictions until a local facility is built.

Show Full Article
Print Article
Next Story
More Stories
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENTS