On Tuesday, Elon Musk’s Tesla opened its first showroom in Mumbai, India. The world’s largest electric car company will launch its best-selling Model Y SUV in India. At the moment, the car can only be registered in Delhi, Gurgaon, and Mumbai. In Delhi, the Model Y with rear-wheel drive (RWD) will cost Rs 61.06 lakh. This version boasts a top speed of 201 km/h and a stated range of 500 km. The long-range RWD model costs Rs 69.14 lakh on-road and has a reported range of 622 kilometers. Gurgaon prices are higher than those in the national capital. The on-road price for the RWD variant in Gurgaon is Rs 66.76 lakh, while the long-range RWD variant costs Rs 75.61 lakh. The long-range version costs the same in both cities, but the RWD variant’s on-road price in Mumbai is marginally more than Delhi’s, at Rs 61.07 lakh.
Apart from Mumbai, Delhi-NCR is the only other major city where Tesla intends to set up infrastructure for charging. Four charging stations will be installed by the company: one in Noida, one on Golf Course Road in Gurgaon, and one each in Saket and Aerocity in Delhi. According to Isabel Fan, senior regional director at Tesla, these four charging stations will likely have 16 superchargers and 15 destination chargers. Following protracted debates about import taxes in India, Tesla has entered the Indian market. Musk has already voiced his concerns about the high import taxes imposed by India. When asked about Tesla’s intentions for India on social media in 2021, Musk responded, “We want to do so, but import duties are the highest in the world by far of any large country!” . In India, import taxes on these cars can be as high as 11%. A revised electric vehicle (EV) policy was issued by the government last year in response to these concerns. It reduced levies on a restricted number of imported vehicles for companies that established production facilities domestically with a minimum investment of Rs 4,150 crore. Many people believed that this action was an attempt to draw in Tesla.
