Tesla in India
According to Reuters, citing India's Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari in an interview with The Indian Express, Tesla will "start operations" in India in early 2021. This implies the start of official sales and service of Tesla electric vehicles in India.
The minister also said that if sales are successful, the company has not ruled out building a plant in India to assemble its Tesla electric vehicles. Earlier this year, the US automaker opened its first overseas plant, which is located in Shanghai, China. In addition to this, Tesla is now building two more new plants. One will be located near Berlin, the other in the US city of Austin. According to Reuters, India is pursuing an active policy to reduce its dependence on combustible fuels and is also trying to reduce pollution. At the same time, the country's efforts to promote electric cars have run into problems with a lack of investment in developing the necessary infrastructure for this mode of transport.
However, Tesla will start selling its most affordable model, the Model 3, in India. At that, its price in the local market is projected at around $75,000, which is double the price in the US or China. The exact time of launching Tesla electric cars sales in India is still unknown. However, the company's CEO Elon Musk pointed out on Twitter that sales will definitely not start in January. Sales of electric cars will most likely be done directly by Tesla as it is done in most other countries around the world.