CEO Musk tweets assurance; had earlier cited ‘high’ duties

Elon Musk, the co-founder and CEO of automaker Tesla Inc, on Friday tweeted that the company would be entering the Indian market “next year for sure”.

Mr. Musk was replying to a tweet with pictures of a t-shirt with messages ‘India wants Tesla’ and ‘India loves Tesla’.

In response to another tweet in which a Twitter account stated that they were waiting for this piece of news for ages, Mr. Musk added, “Thanks for waiting!”

However, this isn’t the first time that the Tesla chief has hinted at an entry into the Indian market.

Last year, he had tweeted saying that import duties in India were “extremely high (up to 100%), even for electric cars. This would make our cars unaffordable,” amid expectation of a 2020 launch.

Likewise, in 2017, Mr. Musk had said he was hopeful of an India entry in the summer of that year. However, he had later tweeted, “Maybe I’m misinformed, but I was told that 30% of parts must be locally sourced and the supply doesn’t yet exist in India to support that.”