The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways and the Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises – Nitin Gadkari, confirmed that electric vehicles manufacturer Tesla will make an entry in India by early 2021.
Tesla’s operations will begin with sales in early 2021 and then “maybe” look at assembling and manufacturing vehicles in the country, India’s transport minister Nitin Gadkari told newspaper Indian Express.
As per sources, Tesla is all set to start accepting bookings for its maiden launch with the Model 3, officially from next month and deliveries might commence by the end of the first quarter next year. The Model 3 will come into India as Completely Built-Up (CBU) and is set to be priced around Rs 55-60 lakhs. It will be positioned as a luxury car and is unlikely to face competition in India.
Earlier on Sunday, Tesla boss Elon Musk was also seen on a social media website, Twitter exchanging tweets about the company’s plans for India becoming a reality next year.
The announcement is not a sudden surprise as in October also, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had suggested that the company will come to India in 2021 while responding to a tweet from India. “Next year for sure,” Elon Musk had replied when a handle called Tesla Club India checked with him about the company’s progress in India.
Nitin Gadkari said that Tesla will start selling their cars in India from 2021 and then, based on the response the company gets it would consider setting up manufacturing and assembly lines in India. Fans of the electric vehicle manufacturer have been waiting for the company to come to India but, according to Elon Musk, the criteria of 30% locally sourced material has been delaying the plans for so long.
Tesla’s entry into Asia’s third-largest economy could come at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is increasingly focusing to promote the use of electric vehicles.
Tesla is one of the leading car manufacturers in the world now with a market capitalization of $659 billion. This is way ahead of Toyota’s market capitalization of $215 billion. In the fourth quarter of 2019, Tesla’s revenue came in at $7.38 billion. Even in the pandemic struck year, Elon Musk’s firm has not stopped growing at an astronomical pace. In the last quarter, Tesla posted revenue of $8.77 billion. Recently, Tesla was added to the S&P 500 index. Year to date, shares of the firm have zoomed 669%.
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