Tesla in B’luru?: Elon Musk-led company in talks with state govt to set up R&D centre

Team Udayavani, Sep 21, 2020, 1:03 PM IST

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Bengaluru: In order to leverage the availability of relatively cheap technical expertise of India’s technological capital city, Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc is in discussions with the industries department of the Karnataka government to set up a research and development (R&D) centre in Bengaluru.

Tesla held exploratory discussions with the Karnataka government officials earlier this month seeking possible investments from Tesla for a research facility in Bengaluru. Another meeting is expected to be held later this month in which the government officials are likely to present a proposal to Tesla.

The silicon city is already known as an R&D hub for sectors such as aviation, biotechnology, and information technology and the presence of one of the biggest electric car companies in the world will further boost its stature. If this follows through, then India would be the second country outside the US to have a Tesla research centre. Tesla CEO Elon Musk had also indicated in July that luxury electric vehicles could soon reach India.

It may be recalled that around a year ago, Elon Musk had expressed his intent to have a presence in India, although he had earlier blamed the restrictive government policy for the delayed entry into the world’s fourth-largest automobile market.