Nitin Gadkari, the Minister for street transport and highways, has a transparent message for Elon Musk’s Tesla. In a latest interview with ET, Nitin Gadkari mentioned that Tesla is welcome in India, but when it manufactures domestically. “We welcome Tesla to India. India is a big market with all types of vendors present here. If it manufactures locally in India, it will get concessions,” Gadkari mentioned.
However, if the Elon Musk-led Tesla needs to fabricate in China and promote in India, then concessions wouldn’t be provided, Gadkari clarified.“…But if you make it in China and want to sell in India, then there is no concession policy available,” he mentioned when requested concerning the thought course of on Tesla plan’s to begin manufacturing in India and the corporate’s demand for concessions.
Last week, TOI had completely reported that the Indian authorities is contemplating a coverage framework geared toward high-end, technologically superior car producers like Tesla. This framework is designed to advertise home manufacturing, involving native sourcing, and entails a discount in import duties on totally constructed models in the course of the preliminary years, the report mentioned.
The plan entails a considerable discount in import duties on electrical automobiles, doubtlessly as little as 15%, in comparison with the present peak of 100%. However, this discount can be contingent upon carmakers committing to begin manufacturing operations in India, growing native part sourcing, and offering financial institution ensures to cowl any defaults on their commitments.

The authorities is prone to search agency commitments from firms to ascertain a provider ecosystem, with the purpose of sourcing roughly 20% of components domestically throughout the first two years, ultimately growing to 40% by the fourth yr.
The financial institution ensures would correspond to the worth of the import obligation reductions supplied to the businesses for bringing of their automobiles at sponsored charges. This measure would function a safeguard ought to firms fail to fulfill their commitments relating to native manufacturing and investments.
This represents a possible shift within the authorities’s stance on import obligation charges, reflecting a want to encourage firms with cutting-edge applied sciences to speculate and manufacture in India. If carried out, this coverage would offer a considerable benefit to firms like Tesla, BMW, and Audi, permitting them to enter the promising Indian market with their electrical automobiles whereas test-marketing their imported fashions.
The major goal of this transfer is to considerably increase the manufacturing of electrical automobiles in India over the medium time period. The authorities goals to draw Tesla to India and safe the corporate’s dedication to establishing a manufacturing unit throughout the nation, mentioned sources quoted within the report. Tesla officers have engaged in optimistic discussions with the federal government relating to their plans for India, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assembly with Tesla CEO Elon Musk has additional facilitated this initiative.
Tesla has expressed its intention to ascertain a manufacturing unit in India with an annual manufacturing capability of 500,000 models, which might additionally function an export hub. The mannequin vary is predicted to incorporate automobiles with a beginning worth of over Rs 20 lakh.
While authorities officers preserve that the coverage framework will profit all gamers, each home and world, decreasing import tariffs might pose a problem to the inexperienced ambitions of firms like Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra, who’ve made substantial investments in native electrical car manufacturing.
If high-quality world fashions grow to be out there at aggressive costs in India attributable to lowered import duties, it would lure luxurious automobile consumers away from domestically produced merchandise.