Elon Musk hints at delaying Tesla’s India debut

Electrici carmaker Tesla Motors may have to put its India plans on hold owing to local sourcing norms and supply issues, the Silicon Valley company’s CEO Elon Musk hinted in a tweet. Responding to a Twitter user on the micro-blogging site on whether Tesla will launch in India in 2018 or 2019, Musk said, “Maybe I’m misinformed, but I was told that 30 per cent of parts must be locally sourced and the supply doesn’t yet exist in India to support that.” Tesla started taking bookings from Indian customers for its $35,000 (over Rs 23.5 lakh) Model 3 sedan in April last year. This was around the same time when it unveiled the car to the world. The Model 3 is due to go into production late 2017. The starting price for the Model 3 is $35,000. The booking, which is worth $1,000, saw the Indian corporates like Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma, venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy, and Fitness tech company GOQii’s Vishal Gondal sign up.