The wheels are firmly in motion for Tesla’s entry into India.
Weeks after Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had announced that Tesla would enter India in ‘”early 2021″, Tesla has registered an Indian subsidiary in Bangalore. Called “Tesla India Motors And Energy Private Limited,” the company is registered with the Registrar of Companies, Bangalore. It has an authorized capital of Rs. 15 lakh, and paid up capital of Rs. 1 lakh. The company was incorporated on the 8th of January this year, and has an office at Lavelle Road.
The company has three listed directors — Vaibhav Taneja, Venkatrangam Sreeram, and David Jon Feinstein. Jon Feinstein is a Global Senior Director at Tesla, while Vaibhav Taneja is the Chief Accounting Officer at Tesla. The formation of the subsidiary is the likely first step before Tesla setting up an R&D unit and a manufacturing plant for its electric vehicles in India.
In September last year, it was reported that Tesla was in talks with the Karnataka government to set up an R&D facility in the state. “Tesla has shown initial interest to invest in a research and innovation centre in Karnataka and the talks are at a preliminary stage,” a government official had then said.
It appears that talks have moved rapidly since, and Tesla has gone ahead and registered an Indian subsidiary. It has also been reported that the government of Karnataka has already proposed a list of locations, Tumkur being one, to Tesla for setting up their manufacturing.
Tesla registering a subsidiary in India officially ends years of speculation around Tesla’s entry into the country. In 2014, PM Narendra Modi had visited the Tesla factory in the US, and had held discussions with Elon Musk. A year after that, Musk had tweeted that Tesla was in talks with the Indian government to bring their electric vehicles to India. Musk had kept making references to an India entry over the years on Twitter, but nothing had quite materialized.
All that seems set to change with Tesla now having an official Indian entity. The timing couldn’t be better — Tesla already has a large presence in China, and following the coronavirus pandemic, companies across the world over are looking to reduce their dependence on Chinese supply chains. With the world’s most valuable carmaker having entered India, it would be a massive vote for confidence for Indian manufacturing, and could herald a lot more investment into the country.