Hey @elonmusk if you don’t want to buy @Twitter, look to invest some of that capital in India… https://t.co/vA8Ce27c2G
— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) 165193940000
This comes amid repeated reports of Tesla entering the Indian market but not doing so due to several constraints. Recently when, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said that Tesla is welcome to manufacture cars in India but the company should not import cars from China. Tesla’s China Giga factory in Shanghai will deliver 321,000 cars to customers in 2021. The company is reportedly planning to build a second factory in Shanghai that will increase annual production to 450,000 vehicles.
In January 2022, Elon Musk tweeted that Tesla was not in India due to ‘challenges with the government’. However, both Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and the Ministry of Heavy Industries have asked Tesla to start manufacturing its cars in India before considering any tax concessions.
Currently, cars costing less than US$ 40,000 are imported as Completely Built Units (CBUs), attracting a customs duty of 60 per cent. And vehicles whose value exceeds US$40,000 are subject to 100 percent customs duty. The cost of cars is calculated after including engine size and cost, insurance and freight charges (CIF). In 2021, Tesla wrote to the road ministry asking for tariffs on electric vehicles to be raised to 40 percent.
