India: Tesla off to a slow start amid tepid consumer response
Tesla kicked off deliveries of its first EV in India, the Model Y, on 5th September – about one and a half months after its launch in mid-July. Citing data from the government’s Vahan portal, a recent Autocar Professional report said that the company delivered only 60 units in the first month, which was only a fraction of many of its rivals.
To put things in perspective, BYD, Tesla’s closest rival, shipped 541 electric cars in India in September, while BMW and Mercedes-Benz registered 307 and 95 units in EV sales, respectively. While these competing brands offer multiple EVs, including some locally assembled models that benefit from lower tariffs, the American EV maker only sells the Model Y, and that, too, as a CBU import, attracting a steep import duty that significantly shoots up the price.
Just days before Tesla commenced deliveries, Bloomberg reported that the demand had failed to meet internal projections. At the time, the company had secured a little over 600 orders in about six weeks. For comparison, globally, it moved a similar volume every four hours in the first half of the year.
Initially, Tesla planned to take full advantage of India’s GSR 870 (E) rule, which allows companies to import up to 2,500 cars (and other vehicles) compliant with EEC, ECE, or Japanese standards each year without local homologation. Now, the company plans to import 350-500 units of the Model Y this year, just 14-20% of the original volume.
Tesla imports the Model Y to India from China and offers it in Standard Range RWD and Long Range RWD variants, priced at 5.989 million rupees (approx. 57,700 euros) and 6.789 million rupees (approx. 65,400 euros), respectively. In Germany, where the company locally manufactures the EV, it offers the same configurations for 44,990 euros and 49,990 euros, respectively.
With just two showrooms, one in Mumbai and one in Delhi, Tesla has a limited retail footprint in India. Online, however, the company accepts orders from customers across the country. It is initially delivering the Model Y in four cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Gurugram, and Pune.
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