Hope sparks anew for fans of Tesla Motors in India, with CEO Elon Musk promising his company's famed electric cars will make it to the Indian market "next year for sure".
This is Musk's second promise of bringing Tesla to India, after he said in July that the company would launch the Model 3 in India "hopefully soon".
Responding to a tweet by Tesla Club India, which asked, "Hey Elon, just thought we'd put this out here. We wait and hang on to hope wrt 'hopefully soon' for India Tesla entry. Would love to hear of any progress in this regard," Musk replied, "next year for sure".
Next year for sure
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 2, 2020
He followed up by thanking a fan who said he was waiting for this for years, "Thanks for waiting!"
The statement comes after reports that Tesla is in early stage discussions to set up an R&D plant in Bengaluru. Karnataka already hosts several electric vehicle companies lkie Mahindra electric, Daimler, Bosch, Ola Electric, Sun Mobility and Ather.
India has also shown favourable signs towards the EV industry of late, with one report saying the government plans up to $4.6 billion in incentives for EV battery makers by 2030. Notably, Musk had tweeted in July saying Tesla was looking at setting up another Gigafactory—the plants where Tesla make their batteries—in Asia outside of China.
As of 2020, Tesla is the world’s best-selling EV manufacturer with the Model 3 ranked as the all-time best-selling plug-in electric car.
