Elon Musk India

When Elon Musk lands in India, the red carpet for Tesla

Policy rethink

The new EV policy, which effectively lowered import duties to 15 per cent from 100 per cent on car models costing over $35,000 if its manufacturer promised to invest $500 million in setting up a local factory, is being seen as a move to welcome Tesla.

Subsidy structure

The waiver of duties is specifically for models of electric cars with a combined cost, insurance, freight prices of $35,000 or above — a landed cost of ₹35 lakh or more, a user segment that does not generally qualify for a tax waiver for what is clearly a luxury product.

Industry change

The EV industry is currently staring at a fork-in-the-road moment, with Tesla being particularly impacted given its outsized impact on the global EV sector.

Tesla’s 3 key challenges

One, the lack of a mass-market entry-level “low-cost family” car in its line-up, something that was touted by Musk as the company’s primary mission way back in 2006.

Battery preference

While the Lithium-ion battery tech has been a runaway success at the lower end of India’s EV segments, the same cannot be said of the four-wheeler segment.