All the hopes of Musk and Tesla in India
Elon Musk will soon meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and announce a major automotive investment in the country. Tesla is focusing on India to compensate for the weakness of the American and Chinese markets. All the details
Elon Musk announced on X that he will soon meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to Reuters sources, the meeting will serve to announce an investment by Tesla for an automotive plant in the country.
THE MUSK-MODI MEETING AND THE ELECTIONS IN INDIA
The sources say that Musk will meet Modi in the week of April 22, a few days after the start of the legislative elections – which will take place from April 19 to June 1 – which will likely guarantee a third term for the nationalist prime minister. The announcement of an investment by Tesla in the country will be useful in strengthening the image of Modi, who over the years has set up an economic policy of attracting foreign companies with the aim of making India a major manufacturing hub.
HAS TESLA'S PRESSURE ON INDIA BEEN SUCCESSFUL?
Musk and Modi had already met last June in New York. This closeness is part of Tesla's repeated pressure on the Indian government to obtain a lowering of tariffs on imports of electric vehicles. Finally, last month Indiaadopted a new stimulus plan for electric mobility which lowers duties from 100 percent to 15 percent on certain types of vehicles if the manufacturing company invests at least 500 million dollars in the country and a factory opens there.
Also according to Reuters , Tesla's investment for a manufacturing site in India is around $2 billion. The company has also started ( in Germany ) the production of right-hand drive cars intended for the Indian market, rather than the British one.
THE REASONS FOR INTEREST
Tesla's interest in India is explained by the vastness of its domestic market, although the company's models may prove too expensive for most Indian consumers. On this point, Musk recently stated that “India should have electric cars like all other countries. It is a natural progression to provide Tesla electric vehicles in India.”
In short, Musk's company is focusing on India in response to the weakening demand for electric cars in the United States and China, its main sales markets. In the first quarter of 2024, Tesla delivered 386,810 units, far fewer than industry analysts expected.
The problem is that the Indian market for battery-powered vehicles is very small (and dominated by local manufacturers such as Tata Motors ): in 2023, electric models accounted for only 2 percent of total car sales, although the government intends to bring the share to 30 percent by 2030. India is one of the main emitters of carbon dioxide: in 2022 it was worth almost 7 percent of the global total, on a par with the European Union.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/elon-musk-tesla-india/ on Fri, 12 Apr 2024 10:13:54 +0000.