India Still ‘Hard’ Mkt: Tesla On High Tariffs

Vaibhav Taneja, the chief financial officer of Tesla, said the company wanted to be in India due to the huge untapped potential and was carefully working on plans to step into the market here. “We’ve been working on getting into India. India is a very hard market,” Taneja said, adding that it would be 100 per cent more expensive to sell the same car Tesla is selling in the USA

New Delhi: Tesla continues to describe India as a ‘very hard’ market due to high tariffs on imported luxury cars even as the world’s most valuable EV auto maker prepares to enter the country amidst ongoing bilateral trade negotiations between India and the US. In a post-results conference call with investors and analysts, Vaibhav Taneja, the chief financial officer of Tesla, said the company wanted to be in India due to the huge untapped potential and was carefully working on plans to step into the market here.

“We’ve been working on getting into India. India is a very hard market,” Taneja said, adding that it would be 100 per cent more expensive to sell the same car Tesla is selling in the USA. Tesla’s Model 3 starts at around $44,000 (Rs 37 lakh), while the Model Y starts at $47,740 (Rs 40 lakh). There has been speculation that the same variants may be offered in India at Rs 60 lakh and Rs 70-75 lakh, respectively.