HYDERABAD: Telangana has pipped neighbour Karnataka in the race to attract US-based electric vehicles major Triton EV in what will be the state’s largest EV investment yet.
The New Jersey-based rival to Elon Musk’s Tesla will be investing Rs 2,100 crore in setting up its EV manufacturing facility in Telangana’s Zaheerabad, which also houses Mahindra & Mahindra’s largest tractor facility.
Triton Electric Vehicle Pvt Ltd, the Indian arm of Triton that was registered in March this year, will create over 25,000 jobs and manufacture around 50,000 EVs, including semitrucks, sedans, luxury SUVs, and rickshaws, at the facility over the first five years, Telangana IT & industries minister KT Rama Rao’s office announced on Thursday.
Top Telangana government officials told TOI that the company has sought around 150 acres of land for the facility, which will be located in the Zaheerabad NIMZ (National Investment & Manufacturing Zone) that is being developed over 13,500 acres by the Telangana government.
The land for the project will be provided to Triton by the Telangana State Industrial Investment Corporation (TSIIC).
“The company will start with semi-trucks and then go on to manufacture SUVs and sedans at the proposed Zaheerabad facility,” Telangana industries principal secretary Jayesh Ranjan told TOI.
The company inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Telangana government on Thursday after Triton’s India head of development Mohammed Mansoor met KTR and Ranjan.
KTR said the project would put Telangana in the fast lane as far as EV manufacturing was concerned and the government will be expediting all the necessary approvals for setting up the facility.
He also assured the company that the state would provide all the incentives applicable for a mega project under the TSIIC guidelines.
Triton’s founder chairman Himanshu B Patel, who held a virtual meeting with KTR, said that the company looked into investment opportunities in various states across the country and finally zeroed in on Telangana due to its industryfriendly policies.
Karnataka’s chief minister BS Yediyurappa had also held a virtual meeting with Triton EV’s founder in early April.
Other states like Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat too were in the race.
The company inked an MoU with Bharat Electronics in February to develop the batteries and EV technology for its vehicles and also has plans to make the proposed Indian facility an export hub for markets such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Middle East and Africa.