A five-year lease agreement for office space was signed by Tesla in Panchshil Business Park in Pune’s Viman Nagar.
New Delhi: Elon Musk’s Tesla India Motor and Energy Pvt Ltd has rented an office space in Pune, a week after the company officials met Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal to set up a manufacturing electric vehicle plant in the country. A five-year lease agreement for office space was signed by the company in Panchshil Business Park in Pune’s Viman Nagar.
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The meeting with the commerce minister last week saw highest level discussions between Tesla and the Indian government since June when Elon Musk met India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said he intended to make a significant investment in the country. EV Tesla representatives were said to have described in discussions about a potential Indian plant would be 25 per cent cheaper than its current lowest priced offering, the Model 3 sedan which sells for the equivalent of just over $32,200 in China.
The $24,000 target price for the new Tesla vehicle was reported earlier this month by The Times of India newspaper.
Electric vehicles currently account for less than 2 per cent of total vehicle sales in India, now the world’s third largest auto market.
In May, Tesla executives held talks with Indian officials on establishing a manufacturing base for cars and batteries in India.
The meeting with Union Minister Piyush Goyal is expected to centre around setting up an EV supply chain and discussing land allotment for a factory.
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Tesla has aggressively discounted its existing models since the start of the year while Musk has repeatedly said its long-term success will hinge on bringing down the cost of EVs sharply.
Tesla has said its next-generation vehicle platform will slash production costs by 50% and that multiple models – including an automated “robotaxi” – could be built from it, without detailing what those future models will be or their pricing.
A Tesla plant under construction in Mexico will produce vehicles on that lower-cost, high-volume platform, which the company has said it said it will take to other factories as well.
Tesla currently produces EVs in California and Texas. Outside North America, it has plants in Berlin and Shanghai. The Shanghai plant is Tesla’s largest, accounting for almost 40% of the automaker’s global capacity. Plans to add additional capacity there are pending regulatory approval.
Tesla had expressed an interest in building a factory in India that would produce low-cost electric vehicles (EVs) for the local market and for export, according to a report by news agency Reuters.
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The company has been looking for an entry to India and the government had reportedly told the carmaker that there will be no concession given for import taxes.
