Tresbon
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2014
- Messages
- 328
- Reaction score
- -1
- Country
- Location
WASHINGTON: This wasn't how it was meant to turn out. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the ritzy Silicon Valley electric carmaker Tesla hasn't exactly ignited the company's interest in India. Instead, the firm's honcho Elon Musk has disclosed that he is in talks with China to produce vehicles there and an announcement in this regard can be expected soon.
Although Modi's Tesla sortie during his visit to the Bay Area in September was primarily focused on the company's powerwall battery packs with an eye towards procuring off-grid electric power technology for India, the fundamentals arise from Tesla's work on its highly-rated electric cars. Tesla's Model S luxury sedan, priced at $70,000 and above, is what is being lined up for production in China, possibly within three years, according to accounts in the Chinese media.
Musk reportedly reckons that production costs could be cut by a third by manufacturing in China. China is now the world's largest car market, with nearly 20 million cars sold last year, and demand for electric cars is expected to skyrocket considering the huge amounts of vehicular pollution that has put the country in the spotlight in the global warming debate.
Local production would give Tesla a head start. The company opened a showroom in Beijing in November 2013.
India faces a similar, and possibly worse pollution problem than China, but the country's tough political and regulatory environment has evidently driven away any interest Tesla might have entertained. Although the company employs a large number of engineers of Indian-origin, it is yet to find India interesting from the manufacturing perspective'' and the government's "Make in India'' campaign does not seem to have caught its imagination.
Even before the Modi trip, sources who scoped Tesla preparatory to the Prime Minister's visit told this correspondent the company was not really hot on manufacturing in India, although it was honored by the Indian leader's visit and interest. The company is named after the inventor Nikola Tesla, who, quite remarkably, is said to have engaged with Modi's own hero, Swami Vivekananda, during his visit to the US in 1893.
Almost all of Tesla's current production is centred in California, and it recently opened an assembly unit in Tilburg, Netherlands.
Tesla drives past India, into China - The Times of India
Although Modi's Tesla sortie during his visit to the Bay Area in September was primarily focused on the company's powerwall battery packs with an eye towards procuring off-grid electric power technology for India, the fundamentals arise from Tesla's work on its highly-rated electric cars. Tesla's Model S luxury sedan, priced at $70,000 and above, is what is being lined up for production in China, possibly within three years, according to accounts in the Chinese media.
Musk reportedly reckons that production costs could be cut by a third by manufacturing in China. China is now the world's largest car market, with nearly 20 million cars sold last year, and demand for electric cars is expected to skyrocket considering the huge amounts of vehicular pollution that has put the country in the spotlight in the global warming debate.
Local production would give Tesla a head start. The company opened a showroom in Beijing in November 2013.
India faces a similar, and possibly worse pollution problem than China, but the country's tough political and regulatory environment has evidently driven away any interest Tesla might have entertained. Although the company employs a large number of engineers of Indian-origin, it is yet to find India interesting from the manufacturing perspective'' and the government's "Make in India'' campaign does not seem to have caught its imagination.
Even before the Modi trip, sources who scoped Tesla preparatory to the Prime Minister's visit told this correspondent the company was not really hot on manufacturing in India, although it was honored by the Indian leader's visit and interest. The company is named after the inventor Nikola Tesla, who, quite remarkably, is said to have engaged with Modi's own hero, Swami Vivekananda, during his visit to the US in 1893.
Almost all of Tesla's current production is centred in California, and it recently opened an assembly unit in Tilburg, Netherlands.
Tesla drives past India, into China - The Times of India