Tesla puts Indian manufacturing on hold as German factory gets expansion approval

Following a bunch of high profile meetings it appeared Tesla is on the verge of entering the Indian market. However, Elon Musk's recent actions suggests the company isn't going to invest in India anytime soon and any potential plans are put on hold.

While last year Elon Musk was in a hurry to enter the Indian market, he might have had a change of heart. Indian officials say that Elon Musk canceled a visit to India to meet with government representatives at the last minute and Tesla's team went completely silent.

The cancellation is a bit of a surprise given that the Indian government was willing to compromise and cut on import taxes for foreign EV makers. The EV makers, on the other hand, are obliged to make a serious commitment about setting up production facilities.

From the very start, Tesla wanted to set up operations in the country before committing to local manufacturing, so India's compromise sounds like everything Musk wanted.

The reason for Tesla's potential change of plans could be the company's sizeable drop in revenue, even if Q2 wasn't as bad as expected.

There's better news coming from Europe though, as Tesla got the green light from the German environmental authority to continue the Berlin Gigafactory expansion. And although this isn't the final approval of the whole project, it's a win for Tesla against environmental groups claiming the Gigafactory has the potential to pollute the waters of a protected area.

The approval lets Tesla establish a logistics area for more vehicles, a stairwell on its pressing plant and an access guard.

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