NEW DELHI: So, Elon Musk may finally be inching closer to launching Tesla’s much-acclaimed electric cars in India. Nearly days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a meeting with Musk during his visit to the US, Tesla has seemingly revived its stalled plans to enter the Indian market as it advertised for retail positions in Mumbai.
This is one of the strongest indicators that the company has finally decided to look at beginning operations in the country, after flirting with the idea over the past many years which had almost seen Musk visit the country in early 2024 for a meeting with Modi before he cancelled it at the last minute.
The company has listed 13 jobs on its website and social media platform LinkedIn for various customer-facing and back-end roles in Mumbai. Among them is a "store manager" role responsible for overseeing and driving sales at the location, one job listing showed, a sign that the company is looking to open a showroom in the city. Delivery operations and customer support specialists are also being sought, the ads showed. Tesla is understood to have hired some officials in India previously too, though they were let go as the plans went into cold freeze.
Sources say that the company will initially import cars to the market and sell them through retail locations in Mumbai and Delhi.
Musk and US President Donald Trump have often criticized the high import duty on cars in India, and Tesla may have decided to change plans in favour of the country after assurances of support from the govt this time around.
Govt had last year announced a new scheme to attract companies to invest in EV manufacturing, and many saw the incentive being tailored mainly to attract Tesla. The scheme promised to slash import duty on certain electric vehicles to as low as 15% if their makers invested at least $500 million in the country and start production within three years. The policy allowed companies to import up to 8,000 cars a year at the lower tax rate.
Tesla’s plans may have also been encouraged by a decision in the recent Union Budget where govt cut the import duty on cars costing upwards of $40,000 (around Rs 35 lakh) from the current 100% to 70%. However, while reducing the basic customs duty by 30%, the budget had replaced the Social Welfare Surcharge of 10% on the previous customs duty with a 40% Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess (AIDC), keeping the total tax rate at the same level.
Tesla, which has been looking at India for the past few years as a business opportunity, is expected to avail the EV policy and work towards investing between $2 and $3 billion in the country. The company had earlier told govt that it wants to make a budget EV in India, likely to be priced around Rs 25-30 lakh, and this would also be exported across some regions. Govt is enthused about the American company’s proposed plans, especially after it saw the success of Apple in iPhone production in India and resultant exports.
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