China claims Tesla's India biz will be doomed

China has expressed displeasure with Tesla CEO Elon Musk's intention to establish an electric car factory in India. Musk is scheduled to visit India later this month to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and there are expectations of an announcement regarding the establishment of a Tesla factory.

- 

Musk has negotiated with the Indian government for long. He preferred to import cars into India at a lower duty while India wanted him to manufacture cars locally.

He is likely to announce Tesla's India entry after the government announced its new EV policy last month which is likely to suit him. The government will allow the import of completely builtup electric cars that have a minimum cost, insurance and freight value of $35,000 (Rs. 29.2 lakh) at 15% import duty five years in exchange for a minimum investment of $500 million to start local manufacturing. India levies import duty of up to 100% on completely built-up cars.

But China is not liking Tesla's likely India entry. The Global Times, considered a mouthpiece of the Chinese government, has put a hex on India's ambitious step to invite Tesla by predicting it is not going to work because it's too soon for a grossly underprepared and immature Indian market.The doomy commentary ignores that several big Chinese EV makers have earlier shown interest in manufacturing EVs in India but the Indian government did not allow them.

India-China ties have deteriorated due to border disputes over which skirmishes had erupted earlier. India has put Chinese investment under deep scrutiny and has probed several Chinese businesses for wrong-doings.

While saying that Tesla's long-awaited investment in an EV facility in India will undoubtedly be good news for India and help boost EV production, the Global Times article goes on to argue why Tesla might not be successful in India.