With Tesla Inc's decision to establish its manufacturing and R&D unit in Bengaluru, there are talks among people about how it will change the Indian market and open up choices of electric cars. On January 12, 2021, when the company officially announced its arrival, BS Yediyurappa happily tweeted and gave a warm welcome to the team. But why did this American company choose to start its unit in Bengaluru? We give you some of the details about Tesla cars and its reasons to set up shop in the IT city.

Who founded Tesla and what does it manufacture?
Tesla was founded by a group of engineers including Elon Musk, J B Straubel, Martin Eberhard, March Tarpenning and Ian Wright in 2003 in America to prove to people that electric cars can be better and quicker to drive. The company designs and manufactures electric cars, batteries for energy storage from home to grid scale, solar panels and solar roof tiles.

How much does a Tesla car cost?
There are three car models including Tesla Model 3 which costs Rs 60 lakh, Tesla Model S which costs Rs 1.50 Crore and Tesla Model X Rs 2 Crore. All these three models are expected to launch in India by 2021 and 2022.

Did Tesla have plans in the past to enter India?
In 2020, Transport Minister, Nitin Gadkari had announced that the electric car maker, Tesla will start with sales and then begin their manufacturing, research and development based on the response to the sales. However, in 2018, Elon Musk, CEO and product architect of Tesla Inc had expressed in his tweet that some government regulations in India are acting as a roadblock to their project. Besides this, he had mentioned that 30 per cent of the products to manufacture Tesla were to be sourced locally and India didn't have these products. But with famous brands like Apple having started its manufacturing unit and with Elon Musk having a growing number of fans in the country, the market in India seemed to have great potential.

Why did Tesla Inc choose Bengaluru to start their company?
This is not the first automobile or electric car company to set up its manufacturing and R&D unit in Bengaluru. Earlier, Great Wall Motors, Mercedes Benz, Bosch, Delphi, Mahindra and Mahindra and others had set up their manufacturing units in the IT city. Besides this, two-wheeler electric vehicles including Ather Energy, Mahindra Electric, Ola Electric and a few more companies function in Bengaluru. That's why Tesla's entry was obvious in the IT city and a growing talent of software engineers, mechanical engineers in the city was also an added advantage for Tesla Inc.