Elon Musk’s Tesla has leased an office in Mumbai. According to an ET report, Tesla has taken a 30-seat workspace within a co-working facility in Phoenix Market City. For this, he will have to pay Rs 3 lakh per month. Earlier, Tesla had leased 4,003 square feet of space for its new showroom in BKC at an annual fee of Rs 3.87 crore. In such a situation, it is expected that Tesla’s entry into India is very near. Tesla talks with state governments for EV plant The company is already in talks with various state governments including Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra to set up its EV plant with an investment of up to $ 2 billion. Tesla refunds reservation fees of Indian customers On the other hand, Tesla Inc. is refunding the reservation fees of Indian customers who pre-booked its Model 3. Tesla has discontinued the Model 3 Standard Range RWD version. The company now offers the Model 3 Long Range as the most affordable option. According to a Bloomberg report, the company has sent an email to customers who made bookings in 2016: “We would like to refund your reservation fee for now. We will contact you again when we finalize our offer in India. We hope you will join us again when we are ready for launch and delivery in your country. India’s EV market is growing rapidly Tesla is entering India at a time when the EV four-wheeler segment in the country is witnessing huge growth. Last year itself, 1.47 lakh four-wheeler EVs were registered in India, which is more than double the 73,000 registered in 2023. Competition with Tata, Toyota, MG Motors in India The company will compete with Tata Motors, Toyota and MG Motors in India, which have emerged as the top 3 market leaders in this sector last year. Vietnamese EV manufacturer Vinfast is also planning to open its Tamil Nadu plant by June this year with its $2 billion investment in India. Tesla is ready for this. Why was it not allowed to enter India till now? For a long time, there was no agreement between Tesla and the Government of India due to import duty. The company believed that there is a very high import duty in India. On the other hand, the government had no intention of waiving or reducing the import duty on EV. The government had said that if Tesla commits to setting up a manufacturing plant in India, then concessions on import duty will be considered. Musk wanted to sell cars in India first, after which setting up a manufacturing plant will be considered. At the same time, Musk had said that Tesla would not set up a manufacturing plant at any location where it does not already have permission to sell and service cars. Now India recently reduced the import duty on cars priced above $ 40,000 (about Rs 35 lakh) from 110% to 70%. This decision made the conditions favorable for Tesla. Apart from this, the meeting between Musk and Modi helped in this. Budget segment in India Tesla will bring a car worth Rs. According to reports, the company is preparing to launch the most economical EV here. Its price could be $25,000 (Rs. 21.71 lakhs). No information has been provided about which model it will be. But, as per India’s current import policy on EV cars, a car worth Rs. 21 lakhs can cost up to Rs. 36 lakhs in the Indian market.
