Elon Musk, the founder and chief executive officer of Tesla, has responded to a tweet asking if the electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer is planning to open a factory in India. Musk replied: “If Tesla is able to succeed with imported vehicles, then a factory in India is quite likely.”

The founder of Tesla, arguably the world’s best-known EV company, with a market share of 28%, has expressed an interesting in establishing operations in India several times. In January 2021, the company incorporated Tesla Motors India and Energy Private Limited in Bengaluru, a tech hub in Karnataka state.

In 2020, a proposal drafted by NITI Aayog, a federal think tank chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stated India could slash its oil import bills by as much as $40bn (Rs2.98trn) by 2030 if EVs were widely adopted. The think tank recommended incentives of $4.6bn by 2030 for companies manufacturing advanced batteries, according to an article by Reuters.

Tesla is currently constructing a $6.9bn ‘gigafactory‘ in Grünheide, Germany, and has additional gigafactory locations in Nevada, New York and Shanghai.