Tesla's India Plant Likely To Be Set Up In Pune's Chakan Or Chikhali

Elon Musk's Tesla has begun the process of identifying land for establishing an electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing facility in India, with Maharashtra's Pune emerging as its primary choice, according to Economic Times, which quoted sources as saying. This development comes soon after Musk's meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the United States last week.

"The company has been keen on Maharashtra because it already has an office in Pune and this would be a natural extension of its operations, considering it has a lot of existing suppliers in the state too," a source told ET, adding that the Maharashtra government has offered sites close to Chakan and Chikhali.

The report also mentioned that Tesla has reportedly reached out to executives at Tata Motors, a leader in Indian EV manufacturing, possibly to explore collaboration opportunities.

Tesla begins hiring in India

Meanwhile, Tesla has opened recruitments for various roles in India, including business operations analyst and customer support specialist. According to the job postings on the company's website, the posts are for the 'Mumbai Suburban' area.

These roles include service advisor, parts advisor, service technician, service manager, sales & customer support, store manager, business operations analyst, customer support supervisor, customer support specialist, delivery operations specialist, order operations specialist, inside sales advisor, and consumer engagement manager.

Musk had said in 2022 that Tesla, which was earlier seeking a reduction in import duties to sell its vehicles in India, would not manufacture its products unless it is allowed to first sell and service its cars in the country.

In August 2021, Musk said that Tesla may set up a manufacturing unit in India if it first succeeded with imported vehicles in the country. He had said Tesla wanted to launch its vehicles in India "but import duties are the highest in the world by far of any large country!"

At present, cars imported as completely built units (CBUs) attract customs duty ranging from 70 per cent to 100 per cent, depending on the engine size and cost, insurance and freight (CIF) value.