Tesla is set to launch in India next year. The California-based EV maker will initially ramp up vehicle sales in the market, but will consider expansion to assembly and manufacturing operations based on market response. Tesla’s expansion to the Indian market follows General Motors’ withdrawal from the country in 2018.
Tesla Model 3
The news of Tesla’s upcoming Indian launch was confirmed by India’s transport minister, Nitin Gadkari, in an interview with The Indian Express earlier this week. In a recent Tweet, Tesla CEO Elon Musk also confirmed that the EV maker would launch in India sometime in 2021.
Reports indicate that the first Tesla vehicle offered in India will be the Model 3 sedan, the least expensive vehicle that Tesla produces.
India has investigated measures to reduce pollution and lower its dependence on oil, and electric vehicles could be one way to help accomplish those goals. However, EV adoption efforts have been slow-going thus far.
Former General Motors India headquarters
Tesla’s expansion to India follows General Motors’ withdrawal from the country. In 2017, General Motors announced plans to halt vehicle sales in India, officially ending sales operations on December 31st, 2017. GM also sold both of its manufacturing facilities there, including the GM Halol plant in Gujarat, and the GM Talegaon plant in Maharashtra, the latter of which was scooped up by Chinese automaker Great Wall Motors.
General Motor’s justification for exiting India was simple, as explained by former GM President Dan Ammann (later appointed CEO at GM’s autonomous vehicle subsidiary, Cruise Automation):
“In the places where we decide to put resources, we want to win. In others we find a way to release resources or exit.”
Indeed, despite success in China and several other emerging markets, General Motors was simply not “winning” in India. As GM Authority covered previously, GM saw dismal sales in India. Furthermore, The General’s exit caused a good bit of collateral damage on the way out, souring relationships with local dealers and business partners, and damaging the reputation of the Chevrolet brand there.
It remains to be seen if Tesla has a more positive run in India, especially considering the country’s EV adoption efforts.
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Comments
Well said, the same happened in Europe.
‘Furthermore, The General’s exit caused a good bit of collateral damage on the way out, souring relationships with local dealers and business partners, and damaging the reputation of the Chevrolet brand there.’
No one told the dealerships that they were supposed to sell the cars.
Unreal how a company that at one time held a solid third of the NA Market around early 2000s is down to 17% and still paring down due to mismanagement.
That raises a question: would the mismanagement be due to incompetence or malice (or perhaps both, with the incompetent installed merely to provide plausible cover for the malicious)?
What about Mary’s dreams of becoming a Tesla? GM is a joke.
GM’s Stock price is up. 2 factories that were slated for closure will soon be building Trucks (Oshawa & Detroit/Hamtramck. They are managing 4 brands in the U.S. Ford & Toyota couldn’t even manage 3
If GM’s policy is to only put resources in markets where they can win, then why are they still in the US market? As indicated by Gary above, they’re down to 17 percent of the US market from a one-time high of 60. That’s hardly winning. They’ve been in perpetual decline for decades in their home market, so why not just pull out here too?
GM is like Sears; they’re a one-time behemoth whose slow decline has been simply painful to witness and seemingly could’ve been prevented by virtually anyone except the management team that was actually in charge. Sears could’ve morphed their catalog and national distribution business model into what Amazon became with more insightful leadership. Instead, they squandered it all and today are barely alive.
GM continues on with their failed strategy of shrinking their way to success.
And Sears sold their most popular, profitable and towards the end mismanaged brand they had. Craftsman.. It also still had great brand loyalty no doubt from the golden era before things went to China and somewhat damaged the name. Craftsman was sold to someone who actually cared and decided to try and make it great again. Without Craftsman, there is no Sears anyway..
If GM is Sears, Chevrolet is Craftsman. Perhaps Chevrolet will live on as a company better than ever long after GM is gone. Whoever buys it or if it becomes it’s own independent company again will have quite a bit of brand damage to repair.
At the dawn of the Internet commerce era, Sears shut down their long-lived catalog business and closed the nation-wide distribution centers when they should’ve moved it online and reaped the rewards of the burgeoning e-commerce era. Instead, Amazon, a start-up online bookseller went on to become the juggernaut Sears had been in the 20th Century selling virtually everything imaginable via a few clicks and having it delivered to consumers’ front doors.
Companies die from inept management and even the big ones can die by the proverbial thousand cuts.
if gm had invested any significant amount of money into ev’s 20 years ago to address global warming, all you would’ve been screaming that gm had turned into a bunch of eco-warriors/loons/hippies/tree huggers.
Steve,
GM did invest significant money into EVs 20 years ago; actually it was 30 years ago with their EV1 reaching the marketplace in 1996. In typical GM fashion though, they spent lavishly, developed a leading edge product then bailed. They left the market entirely three years later.
yes. i’m just trying to point out the redneck armchair quarterbacks on this site.
GM invested but the market was not ready. GM for once did not force tech like the 8 6 4 or infrared tech before it was ready for one.
GM had leading tech but too often before the market or the computer tech was ready for madd production.
The EV1 tech was saved for the Volt and then what was learned there was advanced to the Bolt not today.
The market is coming to EV and GM will have the product to fill the needs globally.
If GM was known for being a market or segment defining entity that saw its effort to full fruition, then perception alone would have raised interest into EVs. GM toys with brilliance but if the vehicle doesn’t get immediate traction in one product cycle run, it gets the boot and GM’s ‘follow the leader’ and ‘chase the immediate profits’ status remains intact.
20 years ago GM was broke just waiting to find a way out. They got the bail out. Ford wanted a way out and took loans they still are paying off along with loans from the government.
The way GM operated was a formula of failure. Too many divisions, too many markets they fell behind in. Too many cases where they were selling millions of cars globally but were losing money on nearly everyone.
The plan during the bail out was to take the money they had left and build up where they were making money. Then to build up the EV models while maintaining the profitable trucks and CUV models.
Too many fail to see that while EV models are being added the ICE models are not going anyplace.
GM was not competitive in Europe for decades, never competitive in Asia, In India Asian companies are dumping tons of very low cost models build in Malaysia. They may sell a bunch of cars but the profits are marginal. As,e For Australia.
Themes have changes. You have to sell in in great volumes to make a little money or you can focus where you make the most money per unit over pure volume.
GM went broke. Doing the volume thing once.
Now in the future most companies are going to face more regulations that will force EV models. Those who are now investing will hold a great advantage. This is where GM going to gain an advantage to go back global again.
There is much forward thinking going on here and it will pay off. But the key is GM is not killing the ICE models they are just adding EV.
Even if you hate EV it is coming like it or not. While companies like Ford struggle to build one or two EV vehicles GM will have a comprehensive line to fit nearly all markets and they are focusing to make them profitable. Even Fords Mach E was seen at GM getting work done.
The only other company doing extensive work is VW. Bot h they and GM will hold an great advantage moving forward. A number of other companies will not survive or they will be partnering to survive.
This is about making money and survival. Like an animal preparing for winter storing food GM is preparing for the future storing tech that will be needed,
The alternative is GM tries to be all to everyone lose money selling millions of cheap cars and fails. Then they have nothing to pay to bring new models that will be required by the growing EV market.
Many markets are setting 2030 as when ICE will be removed. Japan just announced their plan this week. Other countries and California are doing the same. This will spread like a virus.
These plans failed in the past but the bluffs are over now.
Another dumb decision by Elon the Lemon, apparently he didn’t think of a little detail; the most of the rural India still have not access to grid electricity and and the urban grid is terrible at best but more importantly there’s no proper roads in India, i don’t talk about country roads, no, the roads of even most urbanized metropolitan area such as Mumbai is full of pot holes.
So definitely it is not a convenient environment to sell a premium electric sedan. And India is one of poorest places in the world only %0.5 of Indians barely effort to buy a Tesla. And lastly another good news there’s zero charging network so Elon also will have to furnish the seven largest country in the world with Tesla charging network.
What whine tasters here keep conveniently forgetting is GM went BK while still in Europe and India. They making money while preparing E/Vs in N/A and Asia. Don’t know why you guys keep singing the same tune and think somehow things changed.
What whiners here keep conveniently forgetting is GM went BK while still in Europe and India. They making money while preparing EVs in NA and Asia. Don’t know why you guys keep singing the same tune and think somehow things changed.
As a GM stockholder I understand the comment that they are “not killing the ICE models they are just adding EV.” Most assessments that I have read estimate that the EV market will be about 30% of new US car sales by 2030. Who knows if this is correct, however, if it is accurate then that means the market is still 70% ICE at that time. My concern as a stockholder is that GM appears to be putting most of its product development effort / cash into EVs and letting the ICE models lag making them less competitive. This already seems to be happening as GM continues to exit market segments in many cases due to low sales caused by less than competitive products. GM currently has the entire market to compete in and they still have slipped to only 17% of the market. If in the next 10 years they effectively cut off 70% of the market by not being competitive in ICE vehicles then GM could continue their downward spiral and be competing for only 30% of the market.