Billionaire Elon Musk-led Tesla is looking to set up its first showrooms in India and the US carmaker is eyeing various locations in New Delhi and Mumbai, according to a report. This has been revealed just ahead of Musk’s India visit when he is expected to meet PM Narendra Modi.
The showrooms are expected to be readied soon as the electric carmaker plans to start sales in India later this year, Reuters quoted two sources as saying.
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The dimensions of the showrooms too have been revealed by the source saying the company wants to start with one that is 3,000 to 5,000 square feet (280-465 square metres). In addition, there will be a service hub in each city.
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Notably, Tesla has already started producing cars (right-hand drive) at its plant in Germany and these will be exported to India.
This comes quickly in the wake of the government cutting electric vehicle import taxes to 15% from as much as 100% last month. However, this is for only those automakers that are ready to invest at least $500 million and set up a manufacturing facility here.
Expectations are that Musk will likely make an investment announcement during his two-day visit to India from Sunday.
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It has been reported that Tesla executives actively started looking at locations in March. For that, they have already held preliminary talks with real estate developers.
The preferred locations are likely to be at potential high street and mall sites. It has been indicated that Tesla wants construction to start as soon as possible with opening date likely to be in 2024 itself.
Tesla has not commented about these disclosures as yet.
Dealing with a slowdown
For months now, Tesla has been suffering from a big slowdown in sales in both its major markets – US and China. Even price cuts have not been able to stem the slowdown.
It has also been reported that Tesla has cancelled its long-promised affordable car that was intended to drive its mass market growth. However, Musk had cast doubt on that claim in his post on X at that time.
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India demand for EVs
India is the world’s third-largest auto market and the demand for electric cars is expected to rise rapidly. EVs made up just 2% of India’s total car sales in 2023. However, giving momentum to EVs is the government’s intent – it wants 30% of all new car sales to be electric and that too as early as 2030.
