Reuters quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that Tesla has started producing right-hand drive models at the Berlin Gigafactory in Germany and will export them to India later this year. This shows that Tesla is preparing to enter the world’s third largest automobile market.
While Tesla has yet to announce its entry into the Indian market, the company has been in talks with the Indian government to build a factory in the country. Three people familiar with the matter revealed that the Tesla team will go to India later this month to inspect the location of the factory. The investment in the factory will be approximately US$2 billion (Note: currently approximately 14.48 billion RMB).
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India last month cut import taxes on certain electric vehicles on the condition that manufacturers invest at least $500 million in the country and start production within three years. Under India’s new policy, overseas car companies can import 8,000 cars per year at a lower tax rate.
The source said “they have started production of the right-hand drive models allocated to India” and he expected Tesla to ship a batch of right-hand drive models to India before the end of the year.
In fact, Shanghai has always been Tesla’s main export hub in the Asia-Pacific region. For example, models in right-hand drive markets such as Australia and Japan are produced by the Shanghai Gigafactory. Later, a large number of right-hand drive Model Y models were exported to Europe. However, it was not disclosed whether it had been exported from Berlin instead.
Tesla’s plans to enter India also include investing in charging networks and sourcing more components locally, one of the sources said. Two sources said Tesla is considering locating the factory in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the western state of Maharashtra and Modi’s home state of Gujarat, and is expected to build it within two years.
