Tesla Showrooms To Come Up At Delhi, Mumbai And Bengaluru As US Electric Carmaker Searches For Locations: Report

Nearly three months after it registered a local company in India, United States-based electric carmaker Tesla is now reportedly scouting for locations to open showrooms in three Indian cities.

The Elon Musk-led electric vehicle maker had registered a local company in Bengaluru in January this year.

Tesla, which is the most valuable car company by market capitalisation, has been searching for locations to set up showrooms in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, reports Economic Times.

The electric car maker is looking for commercial properties as large as 20,000-30,000 sq ft each to open showrooms and service centres in the three Indian cities, sources were quoted in the report as saying.

Tesla has also hired an executive to lead its lobbying and business efforts ahead of its planned entry into the country.

The company is likely to import and sell the Model 3 sedan by as early as mid-2021. With the company, Tesla reportedly seeks to target rich customers in a niche market.

It has also hired Manuj Khurana, a former executive of India's investment promotion body Invest India, in the first major recruitment to lead its policy and business development efforts in the country, two other sources were quoted as saying.

It should be noted that while the Tesla initially plans to import the cars, Minister of Road Transport Nitin Gadkari had said that the government is ready to offer incentives to the carmaker to ensure that its production cost would be less than in China if the firm commits to local manufacturing.