Tesla’s long-awaited entrance into the Indian market could be further away than initially expected due to the nation’s ‘Made in India’ policy.
In February, Musk said that the electric automaker he co-founded would hit India’s shores in the summer of 2017. A couple of days ago, Musk indicated those plans were on hold, claiming that 30 per cent of the parts used by Tesla would need to be locally sourced for the company to be permitted to sell its vehicles.
However, India’s commerce and industry ministry took to Twitter shortly after to say that there is no mandate on what percentage of parts need to be locally sourced. Good news, right? Well not exactly.
Although Tesla wouldn’t have to re-engineer its vehicles with new parts, India does stipulate that the carmaker’s vehicles would have to be manufactured in India or be hit with huge taxes and it seems unlikely that the marque will set up an assembly facility in the country if it doesn’t yet know how popular the Model 3, Model S and Model X would be.
Tesla opened reservations for the Model 3 in India last year but due to the 125 per cent duty that’s applied to imported vehicles, the car would cost at least double what it does in the United States. That may be fine for India’s wealthy but it is significantly more expensive than a comparable petrol or diesel car and potentially almost ten times as expensive as Mahindra’s electric e2o that starts at just Rs5 lakh (about $7,705), QZ reports.
Musk has yet to say whether or not Tesla will push forward with its expansion into India but we’ll let you know if and when he does.
@TheAvinashSingh Maybe I’m misinformed, but I was told that 30% of parts must be locally sourced and the supply doesn’t yet exist in India to support that.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 22, 2017
.@elonmusk With respect to news reports on launch plans of Tesla in India being delayed, please note some key clarifications#MakeInIndia pic.twitter.com/9RFICGM9Kk
— Make in India (@makeinindia) May 23, 2017