Government quick in clarifying that Tesla has no roadblocks to enter Indian market
Words: Vandana Devi Images: Various Sources
Elon Musk in February said that Tesla was likely to introduce its products in India during summer of 2017. To a recent query asking if Tesla would actually be entering Indian markets soon, Musk tweeted back saying “Maybe I’m misinformed, but I was told that 30% of parts must be locally sourced and the supply doesn’t yet exist in India to support that.”
This brought about lots of confusion and doubts and the government went about clarifying it as soon as possible. The Commerce and Industry Ministry clarified this by referring to the Foreign Direct Investment policy saying that companies didn’t have to conform to any minimum sourcing of local components to establish manufacturing units. They responded through the official ‘Make in India’ handle. They added that such restrictions only apply to retail trading of goods.
The electric car market in India is going to be huge, with even Power Minister Piyush Goyal suggesting that India should have only electric cars operating in the country by 2030. The Government is trying hard to ensure Tesla enters the market by even offering them land near ports and so on. We have to wait to see what Musk’s response to this clarification is.