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Musk says Tesla will arrive in India as early as this summer
Tesla, Inc. has confirmed that an India launch could take place as early as this summer. The announcement came via a tweet, after Tesla CEO Elon Musk replied to a user who asked, “Eagerly waiting for Tesla to launch in India. Any plans to do it? If so then When?” Musk replied, “Hoping for summer this year.”
Musk has been busy in February. He toured a Washington, D.C. sewer tunnel and revealed that Tesla’s first tunnel had already been dug beneath SpaceX headquarters. He’s expected to attend next week’s official Tesla Dubai launch. And SpaceX will have more missions in February.
Hoping for summer this year
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2017
Why is India such a favorable market for Tesla’s electric vehicles?
Ankit Bhatt, Senior Project Fellow at Gujarat Energy Research & Management Institute, India, offers several reasons why India and electric vehicles are a good match. Until recently, he says, low awareness, a negligible charging infrastructure, and lower vehicle ranges contributed to a very slow pace of electric vehicle (EV) development in India. Then, in 2010–2012, after the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy offered an EV subsidy, the EV market seemed to be on the rise.
However, that enthusiastic rally was short-lived. Sales did increase from about 8,000 EVs in 2013 to 2015 with 21,000 EVs sold. An incentive called FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electrics) was unveiled for the years 2015-2017 to target EVs manufactured in India. Bhatt notes that these funds have multiple purposes including pilot projects, creating public awareness, or developing charging infrastructure through innovative business models. He adds that,
Since the cost of EVs is significantly higher than their petrol/diesel counterparts, it makes very little sense to introduce any more EVs in the compact & ultra-compact segments. Until the cost comes down to a break-even point — where no government support is needed to create demand for EVs — I think Indian manufacturers and startups must target the luxury & sports segment, where customers are willing to pay a premium.
Enter Tesla, whose audience around the world is arguably more affluent and whose newest, more affordable Model 3 will have still target an upscale clientele. Tesla added India in 2016 to its list of countries which could pre-order the Tesla Model 3.
Tesla’s entry into the Indian market will shift Indian manufacturing
Existing auto manufacturers in India will be driven as a result of the Musk announcement to accelerate their own launches of electric vehicles to serve as competition to the Tesla brand. Moreover, India’s high demand for Tesla’s batteries will spur plans for manufacturing operations with Gigafactory installations in India. And, for Indian consumers who have range anxiety, Musk had confirmed in previous comments that a comprehensive India network of superchargers would be made available.
Musk’s plans for Tesla India coalesce with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of 175 Gigawatts of clean energy by 2022 for India, which was piqued during a 2015 tour of the Tesla California campus.
Tesla has expanded its branded ‘For Business’ Supercharger program that it launched last year, as yet another company is using the platform to attract EV owners to its business and utilize a unique advertising opportunity.
Francis Energy of Oklahoma is launching four Superchargers in Norman, where the University of Oklahoma is located. The Superchargers, which are fitted with branding for Francis Energy, will officially open tomorrow.
It will not be the final Supercharger location that Francis Energy plans to open, the company confirmed to EVWire.
Back in early September, Tesla launched the new “Supercharger for Business” program in an effort to give businesses the ability to offer EV charging at custom rates. It would give their businesses visibility and would also cater to employees or customers.
“Purchase and install Superchargers at your business,” Tesla wrote on a page on its website for the new program. “Superchargers are compatible with all electric vehicles, bringing EV drivers to your business by offering convenient, reliable charging.”
The first site opened in Land O’ Lakes, Florida, which is Northeast of Tampa, as a company called Suncoast launched the Superchargers for local EV owners.
Tesla launches its new branded Supercharger for Business with first active station
The program also does a great job at expanding infrastructure for EV owners, which is something that needs to be done to encourage more people to purchase Teslas and other electric cars.
Francis Energy operates at least 14 EV charging locations in Oklahoma, spanning from Durant to Oklahoma City and nearly everywhere in between. Filings from the company, listed by Supercharge.info, show the company’s plans to convert some of them to Tesla Superchargers, potentially utilizing the new Supercharger for Business program to advertise.
Moving forward, more companies will likely utilize Tesla’s Supercharger for Business program as it presents major advantages in a variety of ways, especially with advertising and creating a place for EV drivers to gain range in their cars.
Tesla Cybercab is perhaps the most highly-anticipated project that the company plans to roll out this year, and as it is undergoing its testing phase in pre-production currently, there are some things to work through with it.
Over the weekend, an image of the Cybercab being loaded onto a tow truck started circulating on the internet, and people began to speculate as to what the issue could be.
Hmmmmmm… https://t.co/L5hWcOXQkb pic.twitter.com/OJBDyHNTMj
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 11, 2026
The Cybercab can clearly be seen with a Police Officer and perhaps the tow truck driver by its side, being loaded onto, or even potentially unloaded from, the truck.
However, it seems unlikely it was being offloaded, as its operation would get it to this point for testing to begin with.
It appears, at first glance, that it needs assistance getting back to wherever it came from; likely Gigafactory Texas or potentially a Bay Area facility.
The Cybercab was also spotted in Buffalo, New York, last week, potentially undergoing cold-weather testing, but it doesn’t appear that’s where this incident took place.
It is important to remember that the Cybercab is currently undergoing some rigorous testing scenarios, which include range tests and routine public road operation. These things help Tesla assess any potential issue the vehicle could run into after it starts routine production and heads to customers, or for the Robotaxi platform operation.
This is not a one-off issue, either. Tesla had some instances with the Semi where it was seen broken down on the side of a highway three years ago. The all-electric Semi has gone on to be successful in its early pilot program, as companies like Frito-Lay and PepsiCo. have had very positive remarks.
The Cybercab’s future is bright, and it is important to note that no vehicle model has ever gone its full life without a breakdown. It happens, it’s a car.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that there has been no official word on what happened with this particular Cybercab unit, but it is crucial to remember that this is the pre-production testing phase, and these things are more constructive than anything.
Tesla analyst Andrew Percoco of Morgan Stanley teased the company’s dominance in its self-driving initiative, stating that its lead over competitors is “not even close.”
Percoco recently overtook coverage of Tesla stock from Adam Jonas, who had covered the company at Morgan Stanley for years. Percoco is handling Tesla now that Jonas is covering embodied AI stocks and no longer automotive.
His first move after grabbing coverage was to adjust the price target from $410 to $425, as well as the rating from ‘Overweight’ to ‘Equal Weight.’
Percoco’s new note regarding Tesla highlights the company’s extensive lead in self-driving and autonomy projects, something that it has plenty of competition in, but has established its prowess over the past few years.
He writes:
“It’s not even close. Tesla continues to lead in autonomous driving, even as Nvidia rolls out new technology aimed at helping other automakers build driverless systems.”
Percoco’s main point regarding Tesla’s advantage is the company’s ability to collect large amounts of training data through its massive fleet, as millions of cars are driving throughout the world and gathering millions of miles of vehicle behavior on the road.
This is the main point that Percoco makes regarding Tesla’s lead in the entire autonomy sector: data is King, and Tesla has the most of it.
One big story that has hit the news over the past week is that of NVIDIA and its own self-driving suite, called Alpamayo. NVIDIA launched this open-source AI program last week, but it differs from Tesla’s in a significant fashion, especially from a hardware perspective, as it plans to use a combination of LiDAR, Radar, and Vision (Cameras) to operate.
Percoco said that NVIDIA’s announcement does not impact Morgan Stanley’s long-term opinions on Tesla and its strength or prowess in self-driving.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang commends Tesla’s Elon Musk for early belief
And, for what it’s worth, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang even said some remarkable things about Tesla following the launch of Alpamayo:
“I think the Tesla stack is the most advanced autonomous vehicle stack in the world. I’m fairly certain they were already using end-to-end AI. Whether their AI did reasoning or not is somewhat secondary to that first part.”
Percoco reiterated both the $425 price target and the ‘Equal Weight’ rating on Tesla shares.
Tesla expands its branded ‘For Business’ Superchargers
Tesla Cybercab ‘breakdown’ image likely is not what it seems
