Elon Musk's Tesla Looks to Hire in India, Signaling Market Entry Progress
Elon Musk's electric vehicle company, Tesla, is seeking to hire senior staff in India, as per job advertisements posted recently. This move indicates progress in Tesla's plans to enter the world's third-largest auto market.
The job postings come less than a week following Musk's meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington. Tesla has not commented on the matter.
Tesla has expressed its intention to enter the Indian market and establish local manufacturing for years. The company hired some executives in 2022, but top-level personnel left when Tesla paused its India plans.
Tesla is now actively scouting for showroom space in India and has listed 13 job openings on its website and LinkedIn in various customer-facing and back-end roles based in Mumbai, the financial capital of India.
One of the listed positions is for a "store manager" responsible for sales performance at a specific location, suggesting that Tesla plans to establish a showroom in the city. Other openings include delivery operations and customer support specialists.
The job postings coincide with Modi's meeting with Musk in the United States, where they discussed areas such as space, mobility, technology, and innovation.
Musk has criticized India's high import tariffs of around 100% on EVs and has lobbied for their reduction. However, this move has faced resistance from local automakers who fear that Tesla's entry could disrupt their EV plans.
Last year, Musk was expected to meet Modi during a visit to India to announce a potential investment of $2 billion-$3 billion. However, the visit was canceled due to Tesla laying off 10% of its workforce amid declining sales.
In November, Reuters reported that Tesla was exploring showroom space in New Delhi and was in preliminary talks with DLF to secure a location.