Bengaluru, India – Elon Musk’s Tesla has set up it’s office in Bengaluru after ending speculations of whether or not it would come to India and where in the country though the details of what the company plans to do in India remains elusive.
The company has registered in the name of Tesla India Motors and Energy Private Limited at an address on Lavelle Road in Bengaluru’s Central Business District (CBD) according to data Times Of India accessed from the Registrar of Companies (RoC). The registration was done on January 8th.
While Union Transport Minister of India Nitin Gadkari said late last month, that Tesla would start selling cars in 2021, officials and ministers in Karnataka have been speaking of an R&D centre.
Karnatake chief minister BS Yediyurappa tweeted saying that Karnataka would lead India’s journey towards green mobility and that Electric Vehicle Manufacturer Tesla would soon start its operations in India with an R&D unit in Bengaluru. He also welcomed Elon Musk to India and Karnataka wishing him all the very best.
Karnataka industries minister Jagadish Shettar told international media, Times of India, that while the firm has now registered, there is no clarify on what they intend to do there. He also noted that this is the first step and that their officials led by Principal Secretary are in constant dialogue with the firm, prepared to extend all kinds of support to the firm.
Even though Industries Secretary Gaurav Gupta was not available for immediate comments, in an earlier interview to TOI, he mentioned that such big projects take time to materialise as there are lots of modalities to work out while noting that they are confident of developing the firm there.
Tesla is owned by Elon Musk who has recently become the wealthiest person on the planet, surpassing Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, thanks to the continued rise in Tesla’s stock price. Musk is now worth around $188 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. It is less than two months since Musk, who helped found Tesla just 17 years ago, surpassed Microsoft founder Bill Gates to become the world’s second richest person. Tesla’s share price has risen by more than sevenfold this year as demand for electric cars soared and governments announced further measures to wean the world off internal combustion engines.
