Tesla zooms into India, registers new R&D office in Bengaluru

Tesla Incorporated, the electric vehicle automaker from the US, has entered India. Soon after its arrival, the automaker has registered a company by the name of Tesla Motors India and Energy Private Limited in Bengaluru.

Tesla’s arrival to India is expected to be a key catalyst for India’s automotive revolution towards the battery electric vehicle. While many automakers around the world have been making EVs for some time, Tesla with its Supercharging network and its modular skateboard platform architecture for BEVs showed that electric vehicles can be a reality.

With an office registered in Bengaluru, the firm has currently three directors one of which is David Feinstein currently a Senior Director at Tesla. Over the years, Tesla’s founder Elon Musk has been showing his interest to enter the Indian market. But retracted every time claiming high import tax rates and lack of EV charging infrastructure, is making Tesla’s arrival unviable.

The Indian government has since been pushing for electric vehicles more aggressively in the recent past to cut down on its oil import bill. Way before in December 2020, Nitin Gadkari, India’s minister of transport had confirmed that after successful talks with Tesla, the US-based automaker will begin sales operations soon and may look at manufacturing its vehicles in India. 

It is also reported that India is planning to offer $4.6 billion (Rs 3.3 lakh crore) as incentives to companies to set up advanced battery manufacturing facilities.

Tesla’s office in Bengaluru is strictly said to be a technical centre. The office in the IT hub region will aid in the company’s R&D requirements. Tesla has not issued any statement for any product launches in India at the moment.

However, going by the statement issued by the transport minister in India via his official tweet, Tesla’s sales operations at least is likely to begin sometime in the near future.

Tesla’s global product line up consists of the Model S sedan, the Model X SUV, Model 3 compact model and the Model Y compact crossover. India being a price sensitive market, the company expects vehicles like the Tesla Model 3 to make its debut in India. But as India is a big market for small SUVs, the Model Y cannot be ruled out either.

The current electric vehicles sold in India include the Tata Nexon EV at the bottom end of the spectrum around Rs 13-16 lakh. The MG ZS EV and the Hyundai Kona Electric are the other two EVs to be sold in India as well which range between Rs 20-30 lakh. However, in the luxury market, Mercedes-Benz launched the EQC electric SUV in 2020. Now Jaguar is gearing up to launch the i-Pace electric SUV. Audi India has also been teasing the arrival of the E-Tron electric SUV for sometime. But the automaker is awaiting adequate charging infrastructure to be in place before they officially put the vehicle on sale. These SUVs fight in the ballpark of Rs 90 lakh to Rs 1 crore (ex-showroom).

If the Model 3 or the Model Y were to arrive, they would fill the gap in the middle — around the Rs 50-60 lakh space.