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Tesla finally enters India — nine years after Elon Musk first teased its debut
Tesla has made its long-awaited entry into India with the opening of its first showroom — nine years after CEO Elon Musk first teased the move in April 2016 and following years of delays and shifting timelines in one of the world’s largest automotive markets.
Tesla calls the showroom an “Experience Center” and has located it in Maker Maxity Mall in Bandra Kurla Complex, the central business district of Mumbai. The 4,000-square-foot center features the Model Y in rear-wheel drive (RWD) and long-range RWD versions, imported from Shanghai.
The Model Y RWD comes with a price tag of ₹59,89,000 (approximately $68,000), while the long range RWD is priced at ₹67,89,000 (approx. $79,000). The company is also offering a full self-driving add-on at ₹600,000 (approx. $7,000).
Indian customers can order the Model Y starting today for registration in Delhi, Gurugram, and Mumbai by paying a non-refundable deposit of ₹22,220 (approx. $260). Deliveries for the RWD variant are expected to begin in Q3, while the long-range RWD is slated to hit the roads in Q4.
Ahead of deliveries, Tesla has committed to establishing four charging stations in both Mumbai and Delhi, including Supercharger posts and destination chargers. The company is also expected to open its second store in Delhi later this month as part of its expansion in India.
The automaker also plans to import cars from its facility in Berlin once the India-EU free-trade agreement is signed, TechCrunch has learned.
India is the fourth-largest automotive market after China, the U.S., and Japan — with nearly 6 million vehicles produced annually, according to Indian government data — but the country has a relatively small EV footprint, primarily captured by two-wheelers. The country plans to have 30% of all its automotive sales be electric by 2030, though.
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In 2016, Musk announced plans to launch Tesla’s Model 3 in India and teased its local Supercharger network. The company even took $1,000 deposits from its potential Indian customers, which it recently refunded as the launch was uncertain.
Musk has discussed Tesla’s plans several times in one-on-one meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his senior officials. During the first few years of negotiations, the Indian government sought to convince and even push Tesla to establish its factory in the country to initiate operations.
In 2023, India’s commerce minister Piyush Goyal said Tesla was planning to nearly double its component sourcing from India to up to $1.9 billion that year. Modi and his officials also held conversations with Tesla executives about establishing the company’s manufacturing presence in the country. However, Musk remained unconvinced about setting up a local factory anytime soon, sources told TechCrunch.
Tesla has hired several people in India and still has tens of jobs listed in cities including New Delhi, Pune, and Mumbai. In the meantime, the company does not have a specific head in India. In May, Prashanth Menon, who was overseeing India operations, resigned from his position and reportedly stepped down as chairman of Tesla India’s board.
Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja is currently overseeing India operations, with a few local board directors responsible for policy, sales, and human resources, TechCrunch has learned.
In 2024, New Delhi cut import taxes on EVs, allowing Tesla to bring in cars from foreign markets at lower levies. Tesla had long raised concerns about India’s 100% import tariffs on cars, but in its April earnings call, Taneja said the company still saw the market as “very hot” despite the hefty duties. Last month, India’s minister for Heavy Industries, H.D. Kumaraswamy, confirmed Tesla’s plans and stated that the company is “not interested in starting manufacturing in India.”
The India launch comes as the Austin-headquartered company is facing a tough time in major markets, including China, Europe, and the U.S. Local players, including BYD, which also operates in India and is among the handful of electric car companies catering to Indian buyers, are eating into Tesla’s market share in China.
Overall, Tesla’s China-made EV sales increased 16% year-over-year — which includes both domestic sales in China and exports to Europe and other markets. But the company’s Q2 deliveries declined 6.8% year-over-year — the third straight quarterly drop — as local competitors gained market share.
Similarly, Tesla’s sales in Europe declined by nearly 28% year-over-year in May for the fifth straight month, despite overall European car sales increasing by 1.9%. The company also experienced a 13% year-over-year decline in its U.S. sales for the first six months of this year, reaching 255,000. Moreover, Tesla’s global sales dipped 13% to 443,956 units in the second quarter.