Tesla Gets Sixth India Address In Mumbai’s Kurla West

Tesla Inc. now has a sixth address in India. Not one of them is for manufacturing.

Tesla India Motor & Energy Pvt. Ltd. has signed a so-called leave and licence agreement with Lodha Group’s Bellissimo in City FC Mumbai I Pvt. to rent the 24,500 square feet space in Lodha Logistics Park in Mumbai’s Kurla West, according to documents sourced by CRE Matrix—a real estate data analytics firm.

The rent agreement has been signed for five months at a starting monthly rent of Rs 37.53 lakh per month. Tesla India will end up paying nearly Rs 25 crore over five years, including a security deposit of Rs 2.25 crore. The licence came into effect on April 20, while rent was payable from June 1. The monthly outgo will increase at the rate of 5% per annum.

The space will be used for warehousing and as a service centre.

Lodha Logistics Park is a 4,00,000 sq. ft distribution centre in Kurla fulfilling last-mile needs of quick commerce and e-commerce firms, as well as cloud kitchens. 

The transaction adds to Tesla’s fast-growing real estate footprint in India.

In Mumbai, the company has already identified a storefront in the Maker Maxity Building of Bandra Kurla Complex, a coworking space in Kurla’s Phoenix Market City, and now the warehouse in Lodha Logistics Park. All these locations are within 10 km of each other.

A second Tesla showroom is likely to come up in Delhi’s Aerocity. Additionally, the company has registered offices in Pune’s Viman Nagar and Lavelle Road in Bengaluru.

To be sure, Tesla Inc. only wants to sell in India, and not make in India.

“Tesla, we are not actually expecting (interest) from them… They are not interested in manufacturing in India,” Union Heavy Industries Minister HD Kumaraswamy said on Monday. “As from what we know, Tesla plans to open showrooms in India to sell cars.”

The minister was speaking at a press conference to announce that India’s flagship EV policy is now open for global carmakers to make and sell in India. Germany’s Mercedes-Benz and  Volkswagen AG, as well as South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. Ltd. have already shown interest in participating in the application process.

It’s worth mentioning here that all these three global carmakers already have manufacturing operations in India. While Hyundai has already disclosed plans to make India its EV hub, Volkswagen India said it was closely monitoring developments related to the EV policy in India and was “thoroughly assessing their implications”.

The EV policy, in a way, was tailor-made for Tesla—to the extent that its advisory, The Asia Group India, had held one round of consultations with the Union Ministry of Heavy Industries. The company chose to opt out of the next two.