Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Jan 13: Elon Musk has been trying to sell Tesla Inc. cars in India since 2019. But even after three years, the electric vehicle pioneer in the United States isn’t much closer.
“Still working through a lot of challenges with the government,” Musk wrote on Twitter early Thursday, in response to a user who inquired about Tesla’s launch in the South Asian country.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government have been in talks for four years, but conflicts over a local factory and the country’s high import tariffs of up to 100% have resulted in a stalemate. The government has pushed Tesla to increase local procurement and provide precise manufacturing plans, while Musk has sought for lower taxes so that Tesla may begin selling imported vehicles at a lower price in a budget-conscious market.
An Indian minister announced in October that he had ordered Tesla to stop selling cars built in China in India and instead manufacture, sell, and export vehicles from a local manufacturer.
With a population comparable to China, India is a potentially attractive market for electric vehicle manufacturers, but the country’s roads are still dominated by cheap, no-frills cars built by Suzuki Motor Corp. and Hyundai Motor Co.’s local businesses.
Other international players will compete with Tesla, including Mercedes-Benz, which announced on Wednesday that it will launch a locally assembled EQS — the electric version of its flagship S-Class sedan — in India by the fourth quarter.
