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Tesla is in talks with the industry department of the Karnataka state government to set up a research and development (R&D) center in Bangalore to harness the potential of India's tech capital, Live Mint reported.
“The first proposal is for an R&D center and we have already had at least two rounds of discussions," said one official from the department, requesting not to be named. He also said that Tesla's head of India and Karnataka State Commissioner for Industry meet again later this month.
Tesla has visited the question of entering the India market on multiple occasions. The company's CEO, Elon Musk, has in the past pointed to the Indian government's policies and criticized FDI regulations that delay the company's debut in the country. “Would love to be in India. Some challenging government regulations, unfortunately,” Musk had tweeted.
In July 2020, Musk again mentioned India. When asked by Arvind Gupta about when Tesla will enter the country's market, he wrote that he hopes very soon.
Sorry, should hopefully be soon!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 10, 2020
Bangalore is already renowned as a research and development center for sectors such as aviation, biotechnology and information technology. Karnataka is actively seeking investment and has even created a task force to pursue companies looking to relocate from China after the pandemic. The presence of the world's largest electric vehicle company would no doubt further enhance its profile.
For an emerging electric vehicle market like India, it would make sense for Tesla to introduce Model 3. And certainly, down the road, a Tesla Compact would be highly successful there. But ultimately, the cars must be produced at a competitive price. Therefore, Tesla will need incentives from government agencies to make its green technologies affordable to the mass market.
© 2020, Eva Fox. All rights reserved.
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About the Author
Eva Fox
Eva Fox joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover breaking news as an automotive journalist. The main topics that she covers are clean energy and electric vehicles. As a journalist, Eva is specialized in Tesla and topics related to the work and development of the company.
