Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, has long tried to crack into the Indian automobile market and has confronted trade barriers that made that hard to do.
Now, when Mr. Musk holds a position of power in the U.S. government as an aide to President Trump, there are signs that Tesla is making preparations to start selling electric cars in India.
Tesla formed a local subsidiary in 2021 and established a relationship with India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, a decade ago. The company has neither a manufacturing facility nor a concerted sales operation and has sold only a small number of cars in India.
But President Trump has made the sale of American cars in India a U.S. priority and is pushing Mr. Modi to loosen India’s trade barriers on auto imports.
Mr. Musk met with Mr. Modi this month when the prime minister was in Washington for bilateral meetings with Mr. Trump.
Three business people familiar with the real estate markets in New Delhi and Mumbai, two of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Tesla was pursuing leases for large commercial spaces in both cities.
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