Indian government is wooing Tesla since 2015 when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Tesla factory in San Jose to discuss the potential for solar powered batteries. Last year in July, India's Minister for Road Transport and Highway Minister Nitin Gadkari asked Elon Musk to make India Tesla's Asia manufacturing hub and offered land near major Indian ports to facilitate export of their vehicles to South and South East Asian countries.
Indian government also proposed joint ventures between the electric car manufacturers Tesla and the Indian automobile companies with a view to introducing pollution free road transport in India, especially commercial and public motor vehicles. In turn, Tesla had promised that India will definitely be a market for their next generation low cost sustainable Model-3.
Tesla has seen very substantial advance booking for its Model 3 by Indians including major corporate honchos. The Model 3 is considered as Tesla's affordable car and will be available at a starting price of $35,000. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of mobile wallet company Paytm; venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy; and Vishal Gondal were among those who tweeted about booking the Model 3.
Indian government is promoting electric vehicle and allocates $26.3 million towards funding of the electric & hybrid vehicle program, through FAME scheme. According to Indian car manufacturers' association SIAM, sales of electric vehicles rose 37.5% to 22,000 units in comparison to non-electric car sales growth of 7.87% last year.
