The hopes for a Gigafactory in India are still alive after some keen-eyed Tesla fans spotted a change to the LinkedIn profile of one of the automaker’s employees.
The employee in question is Chandrashekar Chandramowleeswaran. Until recently his profile on the world’s largest professional network said he was a Tesla Supply Operations Manager and based in the Netherlands.
That has now changed with his profile showing as of August 2021 he is Tesla’s Global Supply Manager. Along with the title change, he is also now based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
The update was first spotted by the unofficial Tesla Club India on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/TeslaClubIN/status/1443152962386235402
Tesla has been battling to begin sales in India for several years. The biggest barrier is the country’s high import duties on electric vehicles (EVs), which Tesla CEO Elon Musk says are the highest in the world.
The automaker has been in negotiations with government officials about lowering the taxes, but the talks have yet to produce any results. The idea of opening a Gigafactory in the country has also been brought up as a way to officially launch in the country.
While that work continues, Tesla recently received approval to import four models into India. The approvals didn’t specify which models have been approved, but given that the Model 3 and Model Y have been spotted testing on local roads, it is likely they are variants of those two vehicles.
