As China is fuming at New Delhi for rejecting BYD Group’s bid to build a $1 billion facility in India at a cost of $1 billion, executives of Elon Musk-led Tesla are reportedly expected to meet Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal early this month to set up a Rs 20 lakh electric car manufacturing facility, reports IANS. An IANS report quoting Reuters mentioned that the meeting with Goyal would be of the highest level as Musk had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the US last month and said that he plans to bring Tesla to India at the earliest.
Tesla has yet to comment on the report. American electric car maker Tesla has proposed to set up a factory in India to manufacture electric cars for domestic sales and exports. Tesla has been trying to enter the Indian market for a long time, but the high tax structure is preventing the world’s largest electric car maker from entering India. Nitin Gadkari said that if Tesla wants to enter India, they should make cars here and not in China.
Meanwhile, as the government prepares to welcome Musk’s Tesla, the Center has reportedly rejected Chinese electric vehicle (EV) giant BYD Motors’ plan to set up a $1 billion four-wheeler manufacturing facility in the country. According to the Chinese state-run Global Times, if India treated Tesla and BYD differently, “wouldn’t it be outright discrimination against China?”
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In an opinion piece, the paper said it hoped that “India would not be politically biased against Chinese investment, refraining from setting up invisible entry barriers for Chinese manufacturers under the guise of economic protection”.
In recent years, India has stepped up its attack on Chinese companies through what analysts have described as “blatant bullying, and the theft of achievements of Chinese companies under the guise of so-called security threats”, IANS further said.
“India’s efforts to provide a good business climate for international investment and to continuously attract global companies will be an empty promise,” the publication said.