First Indian to own a Tesla and it is not Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, Gautam Adani, Gautam Singhania

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his ‘fan’ and the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, during his official state visit to the US. Elon Musk is the founder and CEO of Tesla, one of the most popular electric car companies across the globe. Although India is emerging as a huge market for electric vehicles, Tesla is still not officially present in the country and although Elon Musk has made several attempts to enter the space, he failed to meet localisation demands from the Indian authorities. Now after meeting PM Narendra Modi, Elon Musk has announced that Tesla is coming to India as soon as humanly possible. Although Tesla is yet to officially arrive in India, that doesn’t mean that there are no Tesla cars on Indian roads.

The first Tesla car was imported by an Indian was in 2017 and he was not Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, Gautam Adani or Gautam Singhania. The first Indian to buy a Tesla is Prashant Ruia, the CEO of Essar Group. The Indian billionaire imported the Tesla Model X SUV in India in electric blue colour and he has been spotted driving the electric SUV several times.

Prashant Ruia is part of the second generation of the Ruia family that founded Essar and is the sole investor in Essar Global Fund Limited (EGFL). For those who are unaware, Essar was founded in 1969 by his father Shashi Ruia and uncle Ravi Ruia. With Assets under Management of $8 billion, the current investment portfolio of Essar is future centric and value accretive. Over the last five years, Essar has rebalanced its portfolio by monetising some of the assets and businesses built by Essar and has attracted more than $30 billion of Foreign Direct Investments.