India’s transport minister, Nitin Gadkari, has confirmed that Elon Musk’s electric car company Tesla will start selling vehicles in the country starting next year. After establishing sales centers, Tesla will then look into setting up manufacturing here, Minister Gadkari said in a statement to CNN Business.
A report by Indian Express said that, Tesla will have a look at possibly building a local production facility based on the response it receives with imported Model 3 sales. The company’s currently building two new production plants, one in Austin, Texas and another in just outside of Berlin, Germany. Tesla opened its first plant outside of the US in Shanghai at the start of this year.
The news should also come as a relief for the people who paid Tesla $1,000 as a deposit. Tesla continued to take bookings until 2017 and planned on releasing some cars in India the same year. However, the launch was delayed indefinitely due to non-adherence to local regulations that require foreign-origin companies to source at least 30% of the parts locally.
India has been courting electric vehicles, though, and carmakers see a lot of sales potential. The government has set an ambitious goal to reduce the number of gas-powered vehicles on its roads while offering subsidies and other incentives to increase the number of electric cars on the market. Hyundai was at the time the second company to sell electric cars in India, after local rival Mahindra. Since then, Tata and MG Motor have debuted their own vehicles in the country, as has Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz.