Tesla opens first India showroom as sales slow in China and US
While few Indians will be able to afford one, the opening is less about selling and more about building Tesla’s brand, analyst says
A 370-sq-metre (4,000-square-foot) space in Mumbai’s posh financial district of Bandra Kurla Complex opens its doors on Tuesday.
It will sell its made-in-China Model Y cars starting at 6 million rupees (US$69,800), a price catalogue on its website showed on Tuesday. The selling price of the model starts from US$44,990 in the US, 263,500 yuan (US$36,700) in China and €45,970 (US$53,700) in Germany.
A second showroom is expected to open in New Delhi by the end of July, and Tesla has strengthened local hiring and secured warehousing space.
But with no plans to set up a manufacturing plant in the world’s third-largest automobile market, Tesla’s entry into India is less about racking up immediate sales volume gains and more about gauging demand for its EVs and building up the brand’s image.
“It’s not meaningful from a volume standpoint yet,” said Jay Kale, a Mumbai-based analyst at Elara Securities. “But it plants the brand. Over time, as charging infrastructure improves and the line-up expands, Tesla could scale.”