Tough government rules keep Tesla away from Indian roads: Elon Musk
New Delhi, May 30: Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday that he would love to roll out Tesla electric cars in India but the tough government regulations have forced him to apply the brakes on his plans till date.
"Would love to be in India. Some challenging government regulations, unfortunately," Musk tweeted in a response to a Twitter user who wrote "No Tesla in India" on his Twitter handle.
"Deepak Ahuja, our CFO, is from India. Tesla will be there as soon as he believes we should," added Musk, also the SpaceX founder.
Ahuja, a seasoned auto industry finance executive with 15 years’ experience at Ford Motor Company, joined Tesla Motors as Chief Financial Officer in 2010.
He holds Bachelors' and Masters' degrees in Materials Engineering from Banaras Hindu University and Northwestern University, respectively and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University.
Ahuja, who works out of Tesla's San Carlos headquarters, quit Tesla in 2015, only to rejoin it in 2017.
Last year, Musk said Tesla's cars could come to India in the summer but there was no further news.
Musk later blamed the FDI norms for delay in Tesla's entry into the Indian market.
"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," he had tweeted.
The Make in India's Twitter handle replied back to Musk: "@elonmusk With respect to news reports on launch plans of Tesla in India being delayed, please note some key clarifications#MakeInIndia".
Tesla was expected to enter India with Model 3 that sells for nearly $35,000. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Tesla headquarters at Palo Alto, California in 2015 and met Musk who gave Modi a tour of the company's electric car plant.
"Prime Minister Modi and I talked about electricity generation and how there are ways to skip ahead with it as with cellphones," Musk said later.
The Tesla founder on Monday revealed plans to install 10,000 Supercharger stations for his company's electric vehicles around the world by 2019 end.
He tweeted a global map of the upcoming Supercharger stations, mainly in Europe, North America and China but not in India.
There are at present 1,229 Supercharger stations across the world, with 9,623 Superchargers installed which can charge an electric vehicle in just 30 minutes (nearly 80 per cent capacity).
Tesla recently confirmed that it has produced its 300,000th vehicle. There are now 212,821 Model S vehicles, 71,927 Model X vehicles, and 1,770 Model 3 vehicles.
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Dalit girl gang-raped in moving car in Mathura, accused on run
Mathura (PTI): A Dalit girl was allegedly gang-raped by three persons here in a moving car, after which she was thrown out on the side of a road, police said on Friday.
An FIR has been lodged against the accused following a complaint from the minor's father and efforts are on to arrest the trio, they added.
Superintendent of Police (Rural) Trigun Bisen said the girl, who is around 13-year-old, has been sent to the district women's hospital for a medical examination, after which her statement will be recorded before the magistrate.
Citing the complaint lodged by the girl's father, the SP said the incident took place on Thursday when the the minor went to a shop in her neighbourhood to buy items for breakfast.
At the shop, a man named Neeraj allegedly gave her a bottle of water laced with sedatives. As soon as she drank the water, she started feeling dizzy and fainted, the complaint said.
Neeraj, his friend Shailendra and another associate then allegedly took her away in a car. They raped the girl in the moving car while she was in a semi-conscious state and threw her out under the flyover of Barsana Road before fleeing.
On regaining consciousness, the girl reached home and informed her parents about the incident, the complaint added.
According to the SP, while narrating her ordeal, the condition of the girl deteriorated and the family immediately took her to a doctor, who also confirmed that she was raped. Following this, her parents filed a complaint at the Chhata police station.
Bisen said that a case has been registered and the matter is being probed, adding that efforts are on to arrest the three accused persons.
