Cruel lesson in humility for Tesla in India
This page is translated from the original post "Cruelle leçon d’humilité pour Tesla en Inde" in French.
- 03/09/2025 11:29
After years of negotiations to enter the Indian market, Tesla launched the Model Y in July with hopes for rapid success.
But there are no fireworks for Tesla; the results are clear: just over 600 orders only, according to Bloomberg. This is negligible for a brand that delivers this volume in four hours globally!
The problem was foreseeable. Tesla failed to bypass India’s high tariffs, among the highest in the world, which brought the starting price to 70,000 euros. At this price, the Indian automotive market, largely dominated by much more affordable models, leaves only a tiny potential clientele.
Elon Musk’s company planned to use its full annual import quota of 2,500 vehicles. It will ultimately import just enough to fulfill these 600 orders, concentrated in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, and Gurugram, the only cities where Tesla has opened sales and service points.
Are we marking down and closing?
The political context doesn’t help. Elon Musk’s past closeness to Donald Trump does not favor Tesla in India, where the former American president is not really appreciated. Spending such an amount for an imported car is becoming almost frowned upon.
In reality, there is no mystery. Selling a high-end electric car in a market so sensitive to pricing, without local production, is almost an impossible mission. Tesla could have negotiated an industrial setup to benefit from tariff reductions, as other manufacturers have done before it, but chose to import directly instead.
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The observation is clear: in India, the Tesla miracle has not happened. As long as tariffs remain unchanged or the brand does not invest in a local factory, nothing is expected to change. The Indian market will remain closed to the Model Y, except for a handful of wealthy buyers willing to pay twice as much as their Asian neighbors for the same car.
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