Tesla steps up India hiring after Musk-Modi meet, fast-tracking market entry plan

Elon Musk’s Tesla is looking to hire senior staff in India, job advertisements posted this week showed, signalling progress in the electric vehicle maker’s plans to enter the world’s third-biggest auto market.

The postings come less than a week after Musk’s meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Tesla has for years planned an India market entry and even setting up of local manufacturing.

Some executives were hired around 2022, though some top-level people quit the company after Tesla put its India plans on hold back then.

With the automaker again scouting for showroom space in India since late last year, it has now listed 13 jobs on its website, opens new tab and social media platform LinkedIn, opens new tab for various customer-facing and back-end roles based in Mumbai, India’s financial capital.

Among them is a “store manager” role responsible for overseeing and driving sales at the location, one job listing showed, a sign that Tesla is looking to open a showroom in the city.

Delivery operations and customer support specialists are also being sought, the ads showed.

The listings come just after Modi met Musk in the United States last week, and discussed issues including space, mobility, technology, and innovation.

Musk has long criticised India for having high import tariffs of around 100% on EVs, and his company has repeatedly lobbied to relax them.

The move, however, has faced opposition from local automakers who think Tesla’s entry can hit their EV plans.

India’s Modi meets Trump, Musk as tariff pressure

Last year, Musk was set to meet Modi during a trip to India where he was expected to announce a potential $2 billion-$3 billion investment, but the visit was called off after Tesla decided to lay off 10% of its global workforce amid declining sales.

In November, Reuters reported that Tesla was also scouting for showroom space in the country’s capital city of New Delhi, and was in early stage talks with real estate developer DLF to help secure a location.