New Delhi: Elon Musk has confirmed his India plans for Tesla centres in five states with a two-word tweet. “As promised,” wrote the world’s richest man in a thread linking to a blog that says Tesla cars will be expensive but may eventually become more affordable for the Indian middle class when the company starts production.
The Tesla CEO has tweeted several times in recent years about his India plans. In October, he had said, “Next year for sure” in reply to a post with a photograph of a T-shirt with the message: “India wants Tesla”.
According to the blog in the Tesla fan site Tesmanian that he has replied to, Tesla is in talks with five states to open stores, an office, an R&D centre and a factory for production.
The piece also explains Tesla’s focus on a “wealthy segment” in a country where there are vast economic disparities.
“Many people assume that if most of the country’s population is poor, then there is no market for Tesla. However, they need to understand that the company is not aimed at selling cars to the entire population of India. In fact, out of 1.387 billion people, the producer is targeting a smaller (relative to the entire population), but a rather wealthy segment of the population,” it says.
“As sad as it may be, out of this population, about 1.3 billion people will not be able to afford a car like Tesla. However, there is still a market for the company of around 85 million people who can afford to buy a premium car.”
The blog says India has a huge market for Tesla’s development, and many of the country’s richest people have been waiting for the company to come here for several years now.
