Recent reports suggest that US electric car maker Tesla has had exploratory discussions with the Karnataka government officials over the possibility of opening a research facility in Bengaluru. They are seeking a possible investment for the same, and reportedly have a follow-up meeting later this month.

If everything goes well, the world’s most valuable carmaker may come to India soon and will be the second country outside the US to have a research centre. However, there is no official announcement on it until now.

While responding to a query by a user about when would it come to India, Musk had responded on Twitter that the launch should hopefully happen soon in India. He had blamed policies by the Indian government for not having ventured into the country till now. He had also taken a dig on the FDI norms for the delay in electric car makers entry into the Indian market.

However, with the rules that were amended by the government in October 2019, companies are now allowed to source goods and services through their third-party vendors to meet the obligation.

Bengaluru is one of the favoured destinations for research facilities of many tech players such as Bosch, Mahindra Electric, Dailmer and more. Even as India is leading towards electric cars manufacturing such as Ola Electric, Ather Energy, the move by Tesla may come at the right time.

Also, Karnataka is one of the first states to have come up with an electric vehicle and energy storage policy, which suggested that government of Karnataka intends to make Bengaluru the EV capital of India. It had also said that it hopes to generate investments of 31, 000 crore in EV R&D and manufacturing.

The EV market in India is growing at a rapid pace, with reports suggesting that India is likely to be a Rs 500 billion opportunity in the country by 2025. It has also suggested that the current pandemic is expected to accelerate the rate of adoption of EVs in the medium term as users look for environment-friendly and cost-effective options.