Tesla Motors, Inc. is an American automotive and energy storage company that designs, manufactures, and sells electric cars, electric vehicle powertrain components, and battery products.[i]
Tesla Motors has, in absolutely no time, gained control of the electric automobile market through its innovation and energy efficient focus. They were the first to introduce the driverless cars technology or Autopilot to the automobile market which created ripples all over the technological world. Consumers found it extremely interesting and the rising demand of Tesla cars has reached levels never experienced before.
In the midst of all of this, The Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, visited Tesla’s headquarters on his annual visit to the United States to get a first-hand experience of what Tesla really is up to, by interacting with the CEO, Elon Musk, and also seeing their factories.[ii]
What he saw was that Tesla is trying to create an energy efficient world through researching and creation of sustainable energy sources so that the future generation of humans can live a sustainable life, which is exactly a nation of approximately 1.6 billion people needs.
A few months later, after another official visit from a highly ranked official of The Government of India, the government offered land to Tesla, in India, to come into the country and start producing.[iii]
Now if Tesla were to start producing in India, it would be catering to a whole new mass market for them altogether for which they’d need to evaluate pros and cons for entry such as the cost of producing in the country, how many people they would be catering to, price strategies etc. Although, they’d have first mover advantage over other car manufacturers in India as they’d be the first to introduce such innovative automobiles in the country.
In my opinion though, producing in India and catering to the mass markets of the country would not work well as the conditions of the roads, the corruption in licenses for driving, and the limited space for driving ‘driverless cars’ would limit the firm from selling as much they’d like to and would also only be able to cater to certain segments such as the upper middle classes, and the middle classes, depending on their price strategy.
To conclude, I believe the relationship between Tesla and India could be one that could revolutionize the on-road experience for drivers all around the country and could change the way people drive, along with limit emissions.
[i] “Tesla Motors.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2016.
[ii] Fehrenbacher, Katie. “Indian Prime Minister Tours Tesla Factory, Talks Batteries & Solar with Elon Musk.” Fortune Indian Prime Minister Tours Tesla Factory Talks Batteries Solar with Elon Musk Comments. Fortune, 26 Sept. 2015. Web. 02 Oct. 2016. <http://fortune.com/2015/09/27/indian-prime-minister-tesla/>.
[iii] Manchanda, Megha. “India Woos Tesla with Land Offer.” India News, Latest News Headlines, BSE Live, NSE Live, Stock Markets Live, Financial News, Business News & Market Analysis on Indian Economy. Business-Standard, 16 July 2016. Web. 02 Oct. 2016. <http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/india-woos-tesla-with-land-offer-116071600509_1.html>.