Electric Vehicles Policy: Tesla Attends Consultation Meeting With Central Govt Ahead Of Musk's Visit The consultation with the automobile industry was to prepare the guidelines for the policy. This was the first such meeting and more are scheduled to take place to prepare the guidelines.
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The central government held the first consultation meeting with the automobile industry players ahead of Tesla CEO Elon Musk to evolve guidelines to operationalise the new electric vehicles (EV) policy released last month.
Officials from Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) and the Finance Ministry, along with car manufacturers such as Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota, as well as Tesla representatives. Representatives from Vietnam's EV maker VinFast were also present in the meeting.
According to the media, the consultation with the automobile industry was to prepare the guidelines for the policy. This was the first such meeting and more are scheduled to take place to prepare the guidelines.
The guidelines are expected to provide more clarity on investments in EV manufacturing in the country, which is at a nascent stage and is expected to grow into a major category within the automobile sector in the coming years.
Tesla's participation comes after India eased duty for a limited number of EV imports for manufacturers setting up facilities in India with a minimum investment of INR 4,150 crore under the new EV policy. The Texas-based Tesla, Inc., had been seeking tariff concessions as a precondition for building a manufacturing plant in India.
Musk is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 22 and is also scheduled to interact with a number of Indian startups from several sectors in Delhi's Bharat Mandapam.
India is currently the world's third largest automobile market and one of the fastest growing automotive markets in the world. The current market size of the automotive sector is INR 12.5 lakh crore and the sector is expected to cross INR 24.9 lakh crore by 2030. The automotive sector contributes over 7.1 per cent to the country's GDP.