Tesla India Debut Nears, First Experience Centre to Open In Mumbai On July 15

Billionaire Elon Musk is set to launch Tesla’s first “experience center” in India at Mumbai’s Jio World on July 15. The development will mark a step closer to Tesla’s much-awaited entry into the Indian automobile industry, Reuters reported. The company has already leased a commercial space in Mumbai’s Kurla West, which is likely to serve as a Tesla service facility. 

Tesla has a total of four commercial properties in India, including an engineering hub in Pune, a registered office in Bengaluru, and a temporary office near Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC). 

Presently, Tesla’s operations in India are managed by the EV maker’s China team after the company’s India head, Prashanth Menon, stepped down in June, Bloomberg reported.

Earlier Bloomberg had reported that Tesla is gearing up to launch its first showroom in Mumbai, with the first set of its cars, including Model Y rear-wheel drive SUVs, having already been shipped to India from the EV maker’s China factory. Besides cars, the global EV giant has imported supercharger components, car accessories, merchandise and spares from the US, China and Netherlands. 

The development will mark another milestone for Tesla’s debut in the world’s third-largest automobile market. Tesla’s Model Y is the world’s largest electric car. Five Model Y vehicles have reportedly arrived in Mumbai from Tesla’s factory in China and were declared at Rs 2.77 million and attracted more than Rs 2.1 million in import duties—a levy that’s in accordance with India’s 70% tariff on fully built imported cars under $40,000 including surcharges, Bloomberg reported, citing documents. 

The giant at the moment is not keen on manufacturing cars in India and is only eyeing to sell imported EVs, Union Minister for Heavy Industries HD Kumaraswamy had said. 

“Tesla only wants to open showrooms and sell imported cars,” Kumaraswamy had said. 

While the hype is building around Tesla’s entry, presently in India EVs account for just 5% of the new passenger vehicles sales, and within that premium cars are just 2%, according to the government’s Vahaan portal.