According to Reuters, electric vehicle (EV) pioneer Tesla is gearing up to establish its first manufacturing facility in India, located in the country’s technological hub — the city of Bengaluru in the southern state of Karnataka.
Tesla to set up electric car manufacturing unit in southern India https://t.co/P937For3Kc pic.twitter.com/yeXu8dmz8N
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 13, 2021
The news comes from official state government documents pertaining to India’s budget. “The U.S. firm Tesla will be opening an electric car manufacturing unit in Karnataka”, said the government of Karnataka in a statement.
India is the third largest producer of carbon emissions in the world, and the developing country has been trying to cut back on its use of fossil fuels for quite some time now.
However, the country has been unable to adopt EVs in any meaningful capacity due to a lack of local EV production and supporting infrastructure like charging stations. Tesla could quite possibly be the answer to both of those problems for India’s population of 1.36 billion.
CEO Elon Musk confirmed late last year that Tesla would be launching in the Indian market sometime in 2021. Tesla incorporated its Indian subsidiary, Tesla Motors India, last month alongside Energy Private Limited, with registered offices in Bengaluru.
An order placement platform for India is expected to launch soon, and tentative pricing for the Model 3 in India is already available.
Chief Minister of Karnataka, B.S. Yediyurappa, said in a since-deleted tweet that Tesla would begin operating in India with an R&D facility located in Bengaluru.
The Indian government is prepared to provide $4.6 billion USD in incentives to companies establishing advanced battery manufacturing facilities in the country, and it looks like a big chunk of that allowance will be going to Tesla.
