A year since a policy offering significant duty cuts for high value electric vehicles in lieu of domestic production was announced, Tesla is yet to engage in discussions with the Indian government, according to a senior government official.
While there have been three meetings with industry stakeholders since the Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Electric Passenger Cars (SPMEPC) in India was notified in March 2024, Tesla participated only in the first meeting and only as an observer, according to a senior government official.
“There is no word from Tesla on manufacturing in India till now,” said a senior government official. The SPMEPC scheme offers a lower custom duty of 15% instead of 70% for a period of 5 years subject to a manufacturer setting up a production facility in India within a three-year period involving a minimum investment of ₹4,150 crore.
The applicant will have to achieve a domestic value addition of minimum 25% by the end of three years and 50% by the end of the fifth year. Last month, the American electric vehicle maker posted 13 jobs openings in Mumbai, indicating its entry into the Indian market. The postings on LinkedInz, which came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Tesla CEO Elon Musk in Washington DC, spanned across business operations, customer service, delivery, order operations specialists, and managers, showroom staff, and technicians.
The automaker is reportedly scouting for showroom space in Aerocity in New Delhi and Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex. “The company may be setting up showrooms in India and importing high-end cars at full duty rates, just like Mercedes, BYD or others are importing cars,” the above quoted official said about Tesla’s anticipated likely plans. The Ministry of Heavy Industries will shortly begin inter-ministerial discussions for finalising guidelines for implementing the scheme, which could be announced “in a month or two”, as per the source.
The partner ministries include Finance, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Road Transport and Highways, Environment, Electronics and Information Technology, Commerce and NITI Aayog.
While there have been demands for expanding the scope of the scheme to include brownfield operations in the scheme, including from Vietnamese Vinfast which commenced construction work for a brand new manufacturing unit at Thoothukudi in February 2024, as well as domestic original equipment manufacturers, the official said a decision on it would be taken only during the inter-ministerial consultations.
Published – March 03, 2025 08:39 pm IST