Ola's Bhavish Aggarwal on Tesla not investing in India: ‘Their loss, not ours'

Tesla has not followed up on inquiries with officials in New Delhi and the EV marker is not expected to invest in India anymore.

Bhavish Aggarwal- Ola founder and CEO- said that Tesla choosing to not invest in Indian market is a huge loss for the Elon Musk-owned automotive company and not for India. Indian EV and lithium industries are growing rapidly and it would be too late for Tesla to enter the market, he said.

Bhavish Aggarwal said that many “big city schools” in India are teaching how to use gender pronouns to children.

Posting on X (formerly Twitter), “If true, this is Tesla’s loss, not India’s. While the Indian EV and Lithium ecosystem is early, we’re gaining momentum quickly. It’ll be too late for Tesla when they look at India seriously again in a few years."

This comes as Bloomberg reported that Tesla has not followed up on inquiries with officials in New Delhi and the EV marker is not expected to invest in India anymore. The report comes weeks after Elon Musk postponed his visit to India. Citing Tesla's financial issues, the report claimed that Tesla has no plans to invest fresh funds in India.

Tesla has posted a second consecutive drop in global deliveries this quarter and faces increasing competition from China. The automaker also announced job cuts this year, sold its flagship Cybertruck stall, and delayed the construction of its Mexico plant.

The report also claimed that government may now turn towards domestic players such as Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors to boost EV production in India.

Meanwhile, Ola is poised for its market debut after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) approved Ola Electric's IPO in June 2024. The IPO will include a primary issuance of ₹5,500 crore and a secondary sale of ₹1,750 crore. This approval marks Ola Electric as the first EV startup to receive such clearance from the market regulator.