Tesla in huddle with India for a big-capacity car factory: Report

Tesla is in talks with the Indian government to set up a car factory in the country, The Times of India has reported. The factory will reportedly have a capacity of as many as 500,000 electric vehicles. The report added that the prices of the vehicles will start from 2 million rupees ($24,400.66).

The report cited government sources to say that the Elon Musk-led company is also planning to using India as an export base. This fits in the company's plans to ship cars to Indo-Pacific countries.

Reuters said Tesla did not respond to its request for comment.

The reported discussions with the Indian government mark a shift in strategy for the US electric car maker.

Talks between Tesla and the Indian government stalled because Indian government refused to agree to Tesla's request to lower import taxes on cars. This tax can be as much as 100 per cent.

India was keen for Tesla to manufacture vehicles locally, but the company said it wanted to export its cars first to test the strength of demand.

In renewed efforts to enter the domestic market with a change of stance, Tesla held discussions in May with officials about incentives being offered by the government for car and battery manufacturing, Reuters reported.

Last month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Elon Musk. The PM pushed the carmaker to make a "significant investment" in the country.

There is strong potential in India for a sustainable energy future including that for solar power along with stationery battery packs and electric vehicles, Musk said after meeting Modi. He added that he hopes to bring SpaceX Starlink satellites internet service to the country as well.

Musk in news

Musk is currently in the news for launch of his long-teased artificial intelligence startup xAI. The launch was announced on Wednesday (July 12). A team of engineers was unveiled. The team has engineers from the same tech firm Musk hopes to challenge in his bid to build an alternative to ChatGPT.

The startup will be led by Musk. He is already the CEO of electric car maker Tesla, CEO of rocket launch company SpaceX and owner of Twitter.

Interestingly, Musk has said on several occasions that the development of AI should be paused and that regulation of the sector was need of the hour. Musk has repeatedly voiced concerns about AI's potential for "civilizational destruction."

In a Twitter Spaces event on Wednesday, Musk sought to explain his plan of developing safer AI. Rather than explicitly programming morality into its AI, xAI will seek to create a "maximally curious" AI, he said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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