Tesla may be revving up interest in India, again

                  Tesla Inc has been in the news for the last few days since it hinted at an Indian entry in 2021. There was relatively no movement on the Tesla - India partnership until late 2020 and early 2021. Tesla made several moves to establish a production facility in India and planned for a electric vehicles Gigafactory at Karnataka. But due to high import duties, lack of charging infrastructure and regulatory hurdles, the entry became delayed. Now senior Tesla executives are now planning to come to India and meet the government officials. They are also coming to see the scope of expansion and develop local sourcing of components from India for assembling Tesla cars in India and open up a growing EV market for the brand.

                    Elon Musk's Tesla is probably a pioneer in the global electric vehicle industry. Although India's electric vehicle market surged in 2022, it is steered by only five carmakers. The current visit of Tesla to India could indicate a revival of Tesla's plan to make inroads into India. Recently, Elon Musk had to recall1 million Tesla e-cars in China due to local policies on safety. In 2022, it was planning to sell cars in India by importing them through the CBU( importing finished, assembled car) . But the government refused to reduce the import duties on luxury cars which were at hundred percent for cars with a cost insurance freight (CIF) value of over $40000. Also other automaker Mahindra argued that would hurt investments in domestic manufacturing. India told Tesla it would have to source at least $500 million of auto components domestically if it wanted an import duty cut and also agree to scale up the parts purchases around 10-15 percent per year. Although its arrival in India was delayed , Tesla has been manufacturing and selling Tesla's in China since 2017.

                  Bharat Forge Ltd, Sona BLW Precision  Forging Ltd and Sandhar Technologies Ltd are understood to be among the Indian companies already supplying components to Tesla . The government urged that cars are to be assembled in CKD ( exporting cars in pieces and assembling them here) rather than importing them from China as Tesla wanted to bring down prices. Tesla argued that EV was in its infancy in India, there was less charging infrastructure and so it wanted to test the market by importing vehicles first to gauge public demand. Tesla is expected to launch five cars in India in the year 2023-2024. Tesla Cybertruck , Tesla Model Y are launching soon in India. The main highlight is that Tesla is accelerating the world's transition to sustainable energy with electric cars ,and solar and integrated renewable energy solutions for homes. The high energy for Tesla is fueled by the green energy movement. As per the reports, Tesla did not discuss low import taxes with Indian officials. It only proposed setting up a new factory. Thus making cars locally in India aligns with the 'Make in India' campaign.