Elon Musk tweets on India's plan
Elon Musk the founder, CEO and CTO of SpaceX and electric car company Tesla Inc who recently emerged as the richest man in the world recently confirmed his entry in Indian Market through Bengaluru. He announced his plans for Tesla centres in five states with a two word tweet "As promised". He accompanied this tweet with a blog saying that Tesla cars will be expensive but will become affordable for Indian middle class as the production surges. This has indeed instilled excitement and thrill among Indian car enthusiasts.
The company CEO made numerous claims in recent years about his plans for India. In October, in retaliation to a post with a photograph of a T-Shirt saying "India wants Tesla" he said, "Next year for sure". This raised speculations about Tesla's run on Indian roads. According to the blog in fan site of Tesla Tasmanian where he said that Tesla is in contact with five states for establishment to open stores, an office and R&D centre and manufacturing factory. Tesla initially lays focus on the wealthy section of society in a country with vast economic disparities.
"The usual assumption states that in countries with majority populations lying below the poverty line, Tesla can have no market. But to break the ideology, the company is not targeting the whole population instead out of 1.387 billion people we are aiming to sell cars to the wealthy segment of population," the piece says. Although out of a huge population 1.3 billion may not be able to afford the car but still the company can open the market for 85 million buyers who dream to have a premium car. India has a huge market for Tesla and rich people are waiting to buy this car for several years. "Currently, Tesla cars are expensive due to high tariffs in India. However, setting an independent production unit will reduce the cost to acceptable levels. This can make cars affordable for the middle class," says the blog.
The Karnataka government has allotted land to Tesla in Tumkur on the outskirts of Bengaluru to set up a manufacturing unit. Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said in a tweet that the company is setting up an R & D unit in Bengaluru. On Tuesday, the company registered its subsidiary under the name, "Tesla India Motors and Energy Private Ltd". It will be operational from June and the first product will be Model 3 Sedan reaching the markets.
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