According to an Economic Times report published at the end of December, India’s transport minister Nitin Gadkari has confirmed the American EV maker will arrive in the country this year. “American auto major Tesla will have its distribution facility (sale centers) for its cars in India from next year and, considering the demand, it would look into setting up of manufacturing here (too),” Gadkari told the Economic Times. The first step will see Tesla set up sales operations in the country, and could eventually consider local assembly and manufacturing. Geographically speaking, it makes most sense for the Indian market to be served by Tesla’s China-based factory. [Read: Meet the 4 scale-ups using data to save the planet] SHIFT is brought to you by Polestar. It’s time to accelerate the shift to sustainable mobility. That is why Polestar combines electric driving with cutting-edge design and thrilling performance. Find out how. Ol’ Musky should already have a pretty good idea on what demand will look like in the country. He’s been hinting at the idea for over four years, and many Indians, including some prominent tech company CEOs, have already put deposits down and are waiting for deliveries. So there’s some immediate backlog that looks like it needs to be cleared before new customers can be entertained. HT – Clean Technica
