New Delhi, India

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Monday confirmed that American electric vehicle company Tesla will begin its operations in India in early 2021.

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Gadkari said that Elon Musk-led Tesla will initially begin with sales and perhaps venture towards assembly, sales, and manufacturing.

The confirmation comes after a report by ET Auto claimed that Tesla will launch Model 3 in India in June 2021 and the bookings for the same will begin from next month. It also said that the company will start deliveries from the end of the first quarter of 2021-22.

“India is going to become a number 1 manufacturing hub for auto in five years,” Gadkari said in a recent interview with 'The Indian Express' 

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Gadkari, who has been pushing the use of electric cars in India, also added that some companies are working on indigenously producing affordable cars in electric variants although they are not as advanced as Tesla.

In October, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had recommended that the organization will come to India in 2021 while reacting to a tweet from India. "One year from now without a doubt," Musk had answered when a handle called Tesla Club India checked with him about the organization's advancement in India. 

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In 2016, Tesla has gathered $1000 store from intrigued purchasers with regards to India. Be that as it may, those shoppers are as yet hanging tight for their vehicles and some of them had told indianexpress.com they felt let somewhere near the organization. 

In 2017, a year after the organization began taking appointments, Musk had said his vehicles could come to India in the late spring, yet later accused FDI standards for the delay. 

“Maybe I’m misinformed, but I was told that 30 per cent of parts must be locally sourced and the supply doesn’t yet exist in India to support that,” he had tweeted.