Elon Musk the iconic founder of Tesla has once again blamed tough regulations in India for not entering the country.

In a post on Twitter, Musk said, “Would love to be in India. Some challenging government regulations, unfortunately. Deepak Ahuja, our CFO, is from India. Tesla will be there as soon as he believes we should.”

This is not the first time Musk has tweeted about his views on India. In June 2017, he had said that Tesla was in discussions with the government of India requesting temporary relief on import penalties/restrictions until a local factory is built. In May 217, when a curious fan asked Musk when the company would launch its cars in India, he had responded, “Maybe I’m misinformed, but I was told that 30 per cent parts must be locally sourced and the supply doesn’t exist in India to support that.”

Direct selling

Tesla follows a direct selling model in the US, bypassing dealers and distribution in order to save costs. It sells most of its cars through an online retail model. In India, a foreign company that wants to set up retail operations is required to source at least 30 per cent of parts locally. Smartphone maker Apple, which too sells through its own retail outlets, had sought a relaxation of this rule.

No foreign car maker owns retail stores in India, which means they don’t have to comply with the ‘FDI in retail’ norm. Yet, except for super luxury car makers such as Aston Martin, Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce, most car companies have significantly high levels of localisation in India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose government has put set an ambitious target of an all-electric fleet in India by 2030, met Musk in the US in September 2015. A month later, Musk tweeted: “Given the high local demand, a Gigafactory in India would probably make sense in the long term.”

However, Musk recently announced that Tesla’s next Gigafactory would be built in China.

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