Elon Musk has been working his way around the world by opening Tesla manufacturing plants in one country after another. Now, government documents seen by Reuters seem to suggest that one of the next Tesla facilities will be coming in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
Here’s a little more from the article:
“The U.S. firm Tesla will be opening an electric car manufacturing unit in Karnataka,” the state government said in a brief statement.
The statement was part of a broader document outlining the highlights of India’s budget to its people in the local language of Kannada.
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State Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa had then said in a tweet, which was subsequently deleted, that Tesla would start its operations in India with an R&D unit in Bengaluru.
It’s not clear if that tweet is referring to the plant in question, but if I were a betting man, I’d go ahead and say it sounds pretty similar.
The move would make sense, both for Tesla and for India. The EV company is looking to expand its operations globally, and a plant in India would allow for more production and easier delivery to a whole new part of the planet.
India itself is one of the top three countries in carbon emissions after China and the United States, and the Indian government’s efforts to cut back through more eco-friendly vehicles have been negated by the fact that there simply isn’t an infrastructure available to support them. If you can’t easily charge an electric car, you’re not going to want to drive one. Having a local Tesla plant could be a turning point that could encourage infrastructure development — but it is a large country.
Whatever the case may be, Tesla has established a Tesla Motors India subset of the company and registered it with Energy Private Limited in Bengaluru, Karnataka, which Reuters describes as “a hub for global technology companies.” Further, India is offering billions of dollars in incentives to companies that set up advanced battery manufacturing facilities. Seems like the perfect storm for a new Tesla plant.