With ‘Make In China’ In Mind, Musk Says “Tesla Would Love To Come To India”

Until the development of a local facility, Musk had earlier wanted a temporary waiver on import penalties and various other restrictions

Mumbai: While the government has been trying to seek out Tesla to set up a car manufacturing facility in India, Elon Musk said still wants to bring the carmaker to the world's fourth largest automobile market. "Would love to be there this year. If not, definitely next!" Musk said in a Twitter post. However, Tesla's billionaire chief executive officer, in a May 2018 Twitter post, pointed to "some challenging government regulations" as a hurdle.

Until the development of a local facility, Musk had earlier wanted a temporary waiver on import penalties and various other restrictions.

Tesla broke ground in China, India kept looking

In January, Tesla finally broke ground in China by laying the foundation for the US$ 5 billion factory in the biggest auto market in the world. It is the electric-vehicle maker's first factory outside the U.S. Compared to China's 1.35 million, India just has 6,000 passenger electric vehicles on its roads, according to Bloomberg NEF data.

India way behind China in the electric vehicle market

Restricted by minimal support from government and a scarcity of charging stations, India's market for electric vehicle makers has lagged behind that of China's. India just had 425 publicly available charging points at the end of 2017, although the number is likely to increase to 2,800 charging points by 2022.