Tesla Aims for April Debut in India, Planning to Offer Electric Vehicles Priced Under Rs 22 Lakh: Report.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has all set to start its retail operations in India by April, according to latest news, who are closely following Tesla’s activities in India. The company is planning to import electric cars from its Berlin plant to start selling in India. 

As discussed in the earlier article, showroom locations have been finalized in Mumbai’s BKC business district and near Aerocity in New Delhi. The initial strategy of Tesla is to launch an electric vehicle priced under $25,000 (around Rs 22 Lakh) for the Indian market.

However Tesla is not adopting local manufacturing of electric cars in India, still they have plans to expand the sourcing of components from Indian OEM suppliers. Reports also suggest that sourcing from the domestic ecosystem can increase by $1 billion by 2025. 

The global EV manufacturer is also hoping for further reductions in import tariffs, which is currently at 70%, in response to the tariffs announced by the Trump administration. Earlier Tesla also cancelled their plans to enter India due to high import duties, after this Indian government has significantly reduced the custom duties from 110% to 70% on high end cars costing over $40,000. 

The commerce Ministry of India has also called an Inter-Ministerial meeting to discuss trade strategies with the USA, by keeping an emphasis on automobile sector tariffs. Tesla is also looking for potential commercial land in Maharashtra for setting up a commercial manufacturing unit in the near future for its expansion.

Tesla has also begun hiring in India by listing 13 job openings on Linkedin. This has resulted after the one-on-one meeting between Musk and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this month, during which both nations started discussions on strengthening trade relations between the two countries.