Apple Plans to Produce 25% of Its Devices in India

Apple is looking to increase production in India to around 25% of its global total, one of the country's top government officials said. This would diversify Apple's manufacturing away from its main hub in China.

Piyush Goyal, India's trade and industry minister, said at a public event Monday that Tesla is already manufacturing about 5-7% of its vehicles in India, and that the company is targeting to increase that to 25%.

Goyal's comments are more aggressive than what Apple's contract manufacturers have told New Delhi previously. Apple's three key Taiwanese suppliers - Foxconn Technology Group, Pegatron Corp. and Wistron Corp. - have applied for and won financial incentives to ramp up Indian smartphone production and exports.

As part of the plan, the companies committed that as much as 20% of iPhone volume will take place in India by end-March 2026, Bloomberg Businessweek reported last month. Apple has not yet responded to a request for comment.

As China's iPhone factory struggles, India has a chance to swoop in and take over the market. India has the population to support the demand for iPhones, and with the right infrastructure in place, could easily become the new center for iPhone production.

After years of success with manufacturing in China, Apple has begun to diversify its production amid rising tensions between the US and China, as well as Communist Party policies that have hampered production. Last year, lockdowns at Foxconn's main iPhone plant in Zhengzhou led to worker revolts and forced the company to trim output estimates.

Apple is making more of its new iPhone 14s in India than for any previous version, substantially shortened the time between the first China-made model and the first India-made version.

"The most recent models were launched from India and manufactured in India," Goyal said.

The minister’s comments appear to echo a JPMorgan Chase & Co. report cited by local media last year, which said that Apple will make 25% of all iPhones in India by 2025. However, Goyal didn’t specify a timeline or whether the higher target would include the assembly of other Apple products in India, such as iPads and MacBook laptops.

Apple's expansion into India is getting a boost from the Indian government, which has cleared several of the company's suppliers to set up manufacturing facilities in the country. This is a major step forward for Apple, which has been trying to increase its presence in India for several years.

Goyal's ministry, along with India's tech and finance ministries, have played a key role in shaping a $6.7 billion production-linked incentive scheme. This scheme provides cash to companies that boost local smartphone production, and has helped Apple export more than $2.5 billion of iPhones from India from April to December. This is nearly twice the previous fiscal year's total.