Elon Musk’s feud over Tesla for access to Indian markets “may be a great gift to India,” as it will provide the Indian automotive sector the space it needs to produce vehicles that will take the global industry by storm.
“Tesla will not build a factory in any location where we are not first licensed to sell and service vehicles,” Elon Musk recently tweeted in response to a query regarding the company’s ambitions for India. This, like several of Musk’s recent statements, did not represent reality.
Many Indian states, as well as the national government, have gone to great lengths to convince Tesla to develop a manufacturing factory in India and capitalize on the country’s vast market. What Musk desired, and India refused to provide, was permission to import its Chinese-made automobiles duty-free, giving it an advantage over every other carmaker.
The Indian government made the correct decision in excluding Chinese-manufactured Tesla since India is producing a new generation of electric vehicles for the public that might dominate global markets. These include the most recent technological developments, as opposed to Tesla, whose fundamental technology is almost a decade old, with just modest software changes and risky autonomous-driving technology for the Indian region.
India, which lacks the gigafactories built by Tesla just like in the United States and China, may result in falling behind in battery manufacturing. However, time and technology may be on India’s side here as well. Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries is the dark horse in this race, having just bought Faradion, a British business, for 100 million pounds. This implied that he had worldwide ambitions for sodium-ion batteries.
Musk’s insistence on terms unpalatable to the Indian government may be a significant gift to India: it will give the Indian automotive sector the flexibility it needs to develop vehicles that will take the global automotive industry by storm consuming Elon’s lunch.
More on this can found here – https://fortune.com/2022/06/16/tesla-elon-musk-india-tata-mahindra-electric-cars/
Tesla is yet to penetrate the world’s largest car market, India. Elon Musk has stated for years that Tesla’s entry into India is inevitable, but high import tariffs have made it tough. Nonetheless, the manufacturer has shown signs of planning a launch during the previous year and Tesla vehicles have been sighted testing on Indian roads, also the company has received approval for seven electric vehicle models in the nation. Our Honorable Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari stated that Tesla is still welcome to develop a factory in India, but that Tesla should not import automobiles from China. This appears to be the last blow to Tesla’s efforts to launch in India, as the manufacturer has now officially halted its hunt for service center and Supercharger locations in the nation. It has also begun reassigning personnel.
Musk’s India issues are similar to those experienced by Apple when it attempted to enter the Indian market. In a developing country like India, electric vehicles and charging infrastructure are still in their infancy, despite the government’s efforts to expand the ecosystem as soon as possible. Consequently, the notion that we will build a market by exporting finished goods to India is an old one, and we have to move on from it. As incentives for localization remain critical to driving higher adoption of electric vehicles and making them economical, efforts should be made to manufacture goods and components in India rather than relying on subsidized imports.
