Tesla To Make India Debut 'Early' Next Year (techcrunch.com) 33
Tesla will begin its operations in India "early" 2021, a top Indian minister said on Monday, a day after the tech carmaker said it was confident it would enter the world's second most populated market next year. From a report: The American car company will begin operations with sales in early 2021 and then "maybe" look at assembling and manufacturing of cars in the country, India's transport minister Nitin Gadkari told newspaper Indian Express. How early? Definitely not next month, Musk tweeted over the weekend. Tesla, which broke ground in early 2019 on a $5 billion factory in China -- its first outside of the U.S. -- has for years expressed interest in expanding to India. But in a 2018 tweet, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk shared that "some government regulations" in India had emerged as a roadblock.
Big market (Score:3)
Interesting.
It's a big market. Would certainly be a nice place to get a foothold.
Re:Big market (Score:4)
It also keeps their jobs in country (Score:2)
Re:Big market (Score:5, Insightful)
Protectionism is like candy to the economy. The people normally like it, however it isn't a good long term solution to nourish the economy.
The core idea behind economies, is the Idea that I have something that you want, so in order for you to get it, you should be able to trade me something that I want.
There are a lot of things that we want, but we are either unable, or unwilling to make it ourselves, thus we trade products and services that we are willing or able to do ourselves in exchange.
Our sense of Nationalism often makes us think, that We can do whatever we put our minds to it, so we figure that protectionism would be a good way to make sure we have a strong local economy, because those jobs will stay on our country. However they are things that we really are not willing to do or make, and things we cannot do or make ourselves. So we are forced to trade with other nations.
The meat, vegetables of a good economy is to make sure that you are producing something (usually a lot of things) that others will want from you in exchange. So your country may not be able to make top quality cars, but you can offer something else, say IT services for a lower cost, so your government should make sure that what it does do well in, is kept strong, and competitive. As well to make sure you stay diverse and try to make a good quality car as well, in the long run.
A strong economy competes with others, it doesn't protect itself from them.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't see the 30% locally produced parts as the biggest problem here.
Have you actually seen the roads in India? They are not like the western world at all. It's really a place where you need a simple and solid car you can hammer back into shape weekly. Aluminum bodies and easily damaged and expensive parts like wing mirrors are not right for the environment. Crumple zones are not right for the environment. Even western style shaped windscreens and windows are a major liability there where parts need to be
The aim is to corner the ER and SDR market (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
SDR = Self Driving Rickshaw
*Not* Software-Defined Rickshaw?
Re:The aim is to corner the ER and SDR market (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Bravo.
Indian regulations? (Score:2)
I would be interested to know what regulations Elon is referring to that he considers a roadblock. India does have (or at least used to) some weird rules related to the transfer of capital but I wonder if it was something else.
Flamethrower Teslas (Score:2)
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How many cars have you past on the highway that were pulled up on the side of the road with flames or thick black smoke coming from the engine compartment? Maybe for me it's 20 or so. You know how many were electric cars? Zero.
roadblock (Score:2, Informative)
"But in a 2018 tweet, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk shared that "some government regulations" in India had emerged as a roadblock."
this is the requirement that foreign companies not exploit India by selling product that bleeds the finances of its citizens out the country. the legal requirement is simply that 70% of foreign products must be manufactured locally within the country. this is just extremely sensible, *especially* given the massive wealth imbalance (a factor of 10 to 100) between India and th
Re: (Score:3)
It's market protectionism. India is telling foreign companies if they put money in it says in forever. Successful economies don't do that as it just scares off investment.
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drain the of the order of USD $3 million *per sale* out of the India economy
I would really like to see how they came up with these numbers. They sound bogus. Unless that represents the empty hands reaching under the table.
No problem (Score:2)
Just plug it in [blogspot.com] and charge it overnight.
India and Australia need to work together (Score:2, Offtopic)
Will the grid handle it? (Score:3)
India's electric grid is barely able to keep up with the population's new ability to afford air conditioning, I'm not sure that it will be able to add a bunch of electric vehicles to the mix.
Re: Will the grid handle it? (Score:2)
Duh! That's what the PowerWall is for!
I wonder if they can arrange to sell solar panel systems in India as well?
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Thanks, I've only been there once and never got out of central Bangalore so had no idea.
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If you are in India and can afford a Tesla with the import tariffs that will be applied, I'm pretty sure you have a decent electricity supply.
No, you aren't about to see the average Indian citizen driving around in a Model 3. Yes, there are enough wealthy people that live in developed areas that there is still a market for Tesla. Over a billion people there - even "the 1%" means there is 10,000,000 potential customers.