Tesla unlikely to come to India anytime soon; company makes major announcement
Recently, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account that he would visit India soon and was looking forward to meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi
US electric carmaker Tesla on Tuesday (April 23) said it will use its existing factories to build new and more affordable vehicles. This could mean Tesla’s investments in new factories in India and Mexico are unlikely this year, a media report said.
According to a Reuters report, the world’s top EV maker said it plans to raise production by 50% from 2023 to its current capacity of close to 3 million vehicles before investing in new manufacturing lines.
"This update may result in achieving less cost reduction than previously expected but enables us to prudently grow our vehicle volumes in a more capex efficient manner during uncertain times," the company was quoted as saying in the report.
Investors cheered the decision not to take the risks of building new models in new factories, with Tesla shares jumping 12% in after-hour trading despite the company's quarterly results missing financial targets, the report added.
In the first quarter of 2024, Tesla produced over 433,000 vehicles and delivered approximately 387,000 vehicles. We deployed 4,053 MWh of energy storage products in Q1, the highest quarterly deployment yet.
"The decline in volumes was partially due to the early phase of the production ramp of the updated Model 3 at our Fremont factory and factory shutdowns resulting from shipping diversions caused by the Red Sea conflict and an arson attack at Gigafactory Berlin, the company said earlier this month.
Recently, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account that he would visit India soon and was looking forward to meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, he later said his visit was delayed due to “very heavy Tesla obligations”.
It was expected that Musk would make major investment announcements in India during his visit.