- Thursday, June 05, 2025
This is the first time that India has publicly admitted that it has not been able to lure Musk to make cars in the country
By: India Weekly
US ELECTRIC VEHICLE major Tesla is not keen on manufacturing cars in India, but wants to establish showrooms in the country, federal heavy industries minister H D Kumaraswamy said on Monday (2).
“Tesla… They are more (interested) only to start showrooms. They are not interested to (start) manufacturing in India,” Kumaraswamy told reporters in New Delhi.
This is the first time that India has publicly admitted that it has not been able to lure Musk to make cars in the country.
Prime minister Narendra Modi had met Musk during his state visit to the US in February.
Musk had earlier criticized India for imposing 110 per cent taxes on imported cars, which he had claimed was among the steepest in the world.
Over the years, Tesla has had several rounds of negotiations to enter India.
Kumaraswamy made the remarks at a press conference to announce the unveiling of guidelines for the scheme to promote the manufacturing of electric cars in India.
“So far they (Tesla) have not shown interest. Tesla representative only participated in the first round of stakeholder discussions. The company’s representative was not part of the second and third rounds,” an official told PTI.
The minister claimed that Mercedes Benz, Skoda-Volkswagen, Hyundai and Kia have shown interest in manufacturing electric cars in India.
It may be recalled that US president Donald Trump had said in February that it would be “unfair” for the US if Tesla built a factory in India.
Meanwhile, Tesla India has taken on lease 24,565 square feet warehousing space in Mumbai as it looks for a multi-city rollout of its cars in India.
The warehousing space is located in Lodha Logistics Park at Kurla-West suburb in Mumbai, and Tesla has taken it on a 5-year lease.
Tesla had earlier leased showroom space in Mumbai in March, and is setting up a showroom in Delhi NCR, and an office in Pune.
Indian electric car sales make up less than 3 per cent of overall passenger vehicle sales in the country.
Charging infrastructure and poor road conditions are other challenges.
Globally, Tesla has been facing growing competition from Chinese players such as BYD, and its sales have been falling for the past few months.
