Tesla held preliminary talks with Karnataka government officals on September 10, for possible investments in a research facility in Bengaluru, according to a report in The Economic Times.
A follow-up meeting is likely expected to be held later this month in which officials will draw up a plan for the Tesla executives, the report said.
"Tesla has shown initial interest to invest in a research and innovation centre in Karnataka and talks are at a preliminary stage," a source told the publication. In July, CEO Elon Musk had hinted that the luxury car company will "hopefully" come to India soon.
If the talks come to fruition, India will be the second country outside of US to have a Tesla research centre, the first being China.
Karnataka is also the first state to launch an electric vehicle policy, and has a slew of promising startups such as OLA Electric, Sun Mobility and Ather. The policy hopes to generate investments of 31,000 crore in EV R&D and manufacturing.
Following Karanataka's lead, 11 states including Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have launched similar policies.
In January, Tesla which overtook Toyota to become the most valuable carmaker in the world, opened a Gigafactory in Shanghai. Later in the year, Musk tweeted that the company will look at another Gigafactory in Asia, outside of China.