Elon Musk’s lengthy courtship of Indian officialdom could have lastly paid off. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished him to open one in all his Tesla “gigafactories” within the nation, as a part of its efforts to broaden its long-moribund manufacturing sector; Musk, in the meantime, wished India to deal with tariffs on electrical automobile imports that rendered foreign-made Teslas uncompetitive.

On March 15, the federal government announced a brand new scheme to advertise funding in EVs. Any firm keen to speculate $500 million in a brand new manufacturing facility that begins manufacturing in three years (and with at the least 1 / 4 of its parts added regionally, to start with) can even be allowed to import 8,000 high-end autos a 12 months at a decrease tariff of 15%. It’s typically assumed that this quid professional quo shall be sufficient to get Musk — and, hopefully, one or two different firms, like Vietnam’s Vinfast Auto Ltd. — to chunk. Certainly, the EV producers that at the moment dominate the Indian market are already bracing for competitors.