“Tesla’s Loss, Not India’s”: Bhavish Aggarwal On Elon Musk-Led Co Delaying Investment Plans

After a report said that Tesla has put its India investment plans on the back burner, Ola founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said that it would be a loss for the Elon Musk-led electric car manufacturer, not India.

Responding to a post on X, Aggarwal wrote, “If true, this is Tesla’s loss, not India’s. While the Indian EV and Lithium ecosystem is early, we’re gaining momentum quickly. It’ll be too late for Tesla when they look at India seriously again in a few years.”

Earlier, a Bloomberg report said that India doesn’t expect Tesla to move forward with its planned investment in the country any time soon. 

The report said that the company’s executives have stopped contacting Indian officials since Tesla CEO Elon Musk postponed his visit to India in April this year.

Musk postponed his trip to India, during which he was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, due to “very heavy Tesla obligations”. He was expected to announce the company’s plans to enter India and set up a manufacturing unit in the country.

Soon after postponing the India visit, Musk visited China.

Meanwhile, Indian officials believe that Tesla is facing capital issues and is unlikely to announce fresh investment in India in the near future.

The developments come at a time when the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is on the rise in the country. This increase comes on the back of the Centre’s Faster Adoption & Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme and production-linked incentive scheme to promote domestic manufacturing of EVs and batteries.

The Indian EV market is projected to become a $150 Bn opportunity by 2032. However, electric cars just accounted for 1.3% of car sales in India last year. The adoption of EVs in the country is being led by two-wheelers and three-wheelers.

Ola Electric continues to dominate the Indian electric two-wheeler market, accounting for nearly 50% sales. Besides, it is also manufacturing battery cells and is currently working on developing solid-state batteries.

While Aggarwal earlier claimed that Ola Electric aims to launch its electric car in 2024, there have been no updates on the matter.

The startup is currently gearing up for its INR 5,500+ Cr initial public offering and got SEBI’s approval last month for the public issue.

Ola Electric’s net loss widened 88% to INR 1,471.6 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23) compared to INR 783.4 Cr in the year ago period. Meanwhile, revenue from operations surged 605% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 2,630.9 Cr in the period under review.