India Trying To Woo Tesla With Cheaper Production Costs Than China Pitch

New Delhi: The Transport Ministry is reportedly trying to offer incentives to Tesla so that the electric carmaker’s production costs would be less than that in China.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari made his intent to make India an electric vehicle manufacturing hub and said, “Rather than assembling (the cars) in India, they should make the entire product in the country by hiring local vendors. Then we can give higher concessions.”

“The government will make sure that the production cost of Tesla will be the lowest when compared with the world, even China, when they start manufacturing their cars in India. We will assure that,” he said.

Tesla has registered in India and is expected to start selling its cars here this year.

India is, however, lagging in EV sales compared to China which is the world’s largest EV market. India has seen just 5,000 EVs out of total 2.4 million cars sold in the country. China sold 1.25 million EVs in 2020 and accounted for one-third of Tesla’s global sales.

Gadkari hopes to make India an export hub and said 80% of lithium battery components are being made locally now.

“I think it’s a win-win situation for Tesla,” he added stating that he wishes to discuss building an ultra high-speed hyperloop between Delhi and Mumbai.