US EV firm Fisker’s CEO praises Telangana’s investor-friendly govt, talent pool

Hyderabad: Telangana was dubbed by many as the California of the East long ago, what with its capital city turning a second home to global majors like Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Apple and so on. And now, the CEO of a firm from California itself who set up shop recently here is praising the ease […]

Hyderabad: Telangana was dubbed by many as the California of the East long ago, what with its capital city turning a second home to global majors like Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Apple and so on. And now, the CEO of a firm from California itself who set up shop recently here is praising the ease of doing business in Telangana.

Henry Fisker, Chief Executive Officer of American electric vehicle maker Fisker Inc that established its Indian headquarters in Hyderabad in April, praised the Telangana government, calling it pro-business, in an interview given to leading financial portal moneycontrol.com.

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Fisker Inc., the moneycontrol.com report says, is competing with Tesla and plans to enter the Indian market soon. The CEO told the portal that he intends to bring his company’s Ocean vehicles to India in the upcoming year and eventually produce the PEAR (which stands for Personal Electric Automotive Revolution) locally as well.

Fisker, who founded the company with his wife Geeta Gupta Fisker, and who is also known for designing the BMW Z8 and Aston Martin DB9, is betting big on ‘Make in India’ in order to build a supply chain for the 1,500 or so parts for his cars, the report says.

As for Fisker’s Hyderabad story, he said the current HQ here had about 50 employees, which would eventually reach 500. With remote work going on now, they were also looking for new office space in the city.

Replying to a query on why the firm settled on Hyderabad, when there were other options including Bengaluru, Fisker said they had considered a few other cities before settling on Hyderabad.

“We found that the talent pool is really good here, particularly in the areas we seek. Then we thought it really looks like an up-and-coming vibrant city, and the flight to Delhi is also relatively short. The local government is also very pro-business. Even the minister, KTR (IT and Industry Minister KT Rama Rao) came to visit us in the United States. He was at our headquarters, talking about how quickly you can get different approvals and such. So, you know, all of these things were important to us,” he said.

Fisker’s electric cars, according to the interview, might be seen in India by 2024.

“We will begin production for Ocean (a sport utility vehicle) in November at Magna Steyr in Austria. After six months, we will start manufacturing the right-hand-drive Ocean for India. We will then bring some cars to India in July of the following year,” he said.