A soft evening breeze swept across Bandra‑Kurla Complex on Monday when Tesla finally swung open the glass doors of its first Indian showroom. Inside, under bright LEDs and a persistent hum of curiosity, stood the Model Y — the compact crossover that has propped up the company’s global sales for three straight years. Indian customers, however, will have to dig deeper than anyone else on the planet to own one: the rear‑wheel‑drive version carries a sticker of Rs 61 lakh (roughly seventy thousand US dollars), almost double its American price.
The eye‑watering gap is largely a tax story. New cars shipped into India as completely built units attract import duties of seventy to one hundred per cent. Break the math down and almost Rs twenty‑nine lakh of the Model Y’s price vanishes into the customs ledger before the owner even turns the key. Elon Musk has spent the past four years pleading — first by tweet, lately through back‑channel talks — for a tariff reprieve. New Delhi remains unmoved, insisting the world’s richest automaker build cars on Indian soil if it wants lower levies.
For now, that soil is merely showroom carpet. The example on display in Mumbai rolled off Tesla’s Shanghai line, one of the few plants that already produces right‑hand‑drive vehicles. Deliveries are pencilled in for the third quarter, with a second outlet slated for Delhi later this year.
“It’s an audacious pricing strategy,” said Pune‑based auto analyst Meera Chavan, who visited the launch. “Tesla is arriving as a luxury badge, not a mass‑market disruptor. The question is whether early adopters alone can justify the bet.”
India’s electric‑vehicle market, still shy of four per cent of total car sales, is shaped by sticker shock. Domestic champions Tata Motors and Mahindra sell their top EVs for half the Model Y’s price and have built national charging networks in tandem. By contrast, Tesla’s supercharger footprint here is nil, and the government subsidy that once cushioned buyer anxieties expired in March.
Global momentum is hardly kinder. EV demand has slowed from Berlin to Beijing as subsidies shrink and household budgets tighten. Even Tesla’s own worldwide deliveries dipped eight per cent last quarter, the firm’s first year‑on‑year drop since the pandemic.
Still, the brand carries a cult appeal that rivals struggle to mimic. In Mumbai, the crowd lingered long after the media call ended, peering at the panoramic roof, poking the minimalist dash, whispering about silent launches and Autopilot updates. One prospective customer, a fintech founder in his thirties, shrugged off the premium: “It’s expensive, yes, but there’s nothing quite like a Tesla on Indian roads. You pay for the leap.”
Whether that leap lands on firm commercial ground will depend on how quickly Tesla localises. Industry chatter suggests the company has scouted locations in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, although nothing has made it past preliminary paperwork. Until a factory materialises, every imported Model Y will carry the same tax burden — and every buyer will be reminded that the very same car costs Rs thirty‑two lakh in the United States, Rs thirty‑seven lakh in China, and Rs fifty‑four lakh in Germany.
As dusk settled, Tesla staff ushered visitors out, shutters sliding down with a metallic thud. On the street, a Nexon EV taxi idled at the kerb, its meter ticking beneath a vinyl fare card that read, almost defiantly, “Silent. Affordable. Indian.” The Model Y’s tinted windows caught the neon glow, reflecting a market that may welcome Tesla’s brand cachet yet still bargain with its wallet.
