Tesla Reportedly In Talks With Reliance In India For EV Plant

Luxury electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc. is in talks with Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd. or RIL to form a joint venture to build a manufacturing plant in India, reports said.

The talks are in the initial stages and have been ongoing for over a month. Tesla has been searching for sites across the country for setting up its EV manufacturing facility. As part of the JV, RIL is likely to establish a manufacturing facility and allied ecosystem for Tesla in India.

Tesla, which has reportedly earmarked $2 billion for its upcoming ventures in India, is said to establish a manufacturing plant in either Gujarat, or Maharashtra, which is the prefered location due to its port facilities.

The news comes as Tesla and SpaceX’s CEO Elon Musk are preparing to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 22 to talk about his investment plans in the country.

The carmaker has been struggling off late amid weak demand and tough competition.

Early this month, Tesla had reported weak production and deliveries in its first quarter, partially due to the early phase of the production ramp of the updated Model 3 at Fremont factory and factory shutdowns resulting from shipping diversions caused by the Red Sea conflict and an arson attack at Gigafactory Berlin.

In late March, Bloomberg reported that Tesla has cut down its electric vehicle production at its Giga Shanghai factory in China due to sluggish growth in the sales of new-energy vehicles, tough competition and price war. Tesla had also limited manufacturing of EV parts.

Earlier, the Shanghai factory, which is the world’s largest all-electric car factory, used to manufacture about half of Tesla’s global sales volume.

Tesla is facing tight competition from domestic automakers in China, and a similar low demand in the U.S. and Europe.

Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California, is its very first car factory, and Shanghai factory is Tesla’s first Gigafactory outside the United States, while Giga Berlin is the first Tesla factory in Europe. The company also has a battery gigafactory in Nevada, among others.