Tesla resumes groundwork for launch in India

Tesla has resumed groundwork for entering India after pausing its investment plans earlier this year. The company is scouting locations for a showroom in the national capital New Delhi.

Tesla is discussing a showroom in New Delhi with DLF, India’s largest real estate developer, according to a Reuters report. The company is looking at several DLF properties, including Avenue Mall in the posh southern part of the city as well as the Cyber Hub business centre in nearby city Gurugram (Haryana), part of the National Capital Region (NCR).

Tesla is considering a 3,000-5,000 ft² showroom in New Delhi and a larger additional property to deliver and service its EVs. The electric carmaker has not finally decided on DLF and is also exploring properties owned by other companies.

Earlier this year, Reuters reported that Tesla was searching for a potential retail space for a showroom in India’s financial capital Mumbai. That was just days after the company started manufacturing right-hand drive EVs for India at the Gigafactory in Germany. Thus, Tesla could enter India in the country’s small luxury car space and remain a niche player for a few years until it starts manufacturing cars locally.

In March, the Indian government launched an electric vehicle policy to attract global automakers like Tesla to manufacture electric cars locally. The scheme permits eligible companies to import up to 8,000 electric cars annually at a reduced customs duty (15%) for up to five years, provided they offset the forgone duty by investing at least 500 million US dollars in manufacturing electric cars locally. Tesla has yet to confirm if it plans to leverage this incentive, while other companies, such as Volkswagen, Hyundai, and Toyota are already involved in talks with the Indian government.

While the choice of what vehicle to produce remains unclear, Tesla’s Head of Investor Relations Travis Axelrod confirmed that Tesla is working on a new lower-cost model earlier this month. The company plans to unveil this model in the first half of 2025 and sell it at a base price of 30,000 US dollars with subsidies in its home market.

reuters.com, reuters.com (German exports), reuters.com (showrooms), carscoops.com