Tesla asked for tax incentives to import vehicles and test demand in India. The local government does not want to stimulate imports. On the contrary: India is known for being a protectionist market, taxing up to 100% on imported vehicles. Narendra Modi wants companies willing to sell in India to also produce in the country to deserve subsidies. Still, it never went as far as not allowing any company to sell within its borders.
Apart from the usual Tesla investors and apologists, Musk got a lot of backlash for writing something evidently false. Some users mentioned that India and China are having some border issues, which is the reason for India’s transportation minister, Nitin Gadkari, to have said that importing EVs from China would not be “a good proposition.”
Even the Tesla Club India was very vocal about what Musk stated, showing that some Tesla Clubs do not take what Musk says at face value. The club also brought up the massive issue with reservations for the Model 3 in India. Taken since 2016, most have not been reimbursed.
The Tesla Club India seized the opportunity to ask the Tesla CEO directly about that. If the company had no intention to sell its cars in the country, why did it accept reservations from Indian customers in the first place? The club members stated that “the sheer inefficient communication with reservation holders is truly perplexing.”
Regarding mockery, it followed because Tesla would never have a factory in Texas if what Musk wrote was really true. The company cannot use its direct sales model in that state. It could establish dealerships there to sell its EVs. As it refuses to do so, Texan customers cannot buy Tesla vehicles at home. In Musk’s book, that is probably equivalent to not allowing Tesla to sell. Yet, Giga Austin is there to prove the company’s CEO wrong.
Although the mockery and backlash will not change anything, it is important to register Musk gave a pretty lousy excuse for never having a factory in India. The most likely reason for that is that the executive would contradict himself if he confessed a factory in that country is out of the question because Tesla did not receive the tax incentives it asked for. Musk once said he was against them. Perhaps he should add that what he hates is not getting them.
Tesla will not put a manufacturing plant in any location where we are not allowed first to sell & service cars
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 27, 2022
You are allowed to sell and service cars just not without paying import duties for importing fully built cars from China. Common Elon, Kia and BMW are able to get their CBU $60,000 Evs and sell them here. No one is stopping Tesla from doing the same.
— Tesla Club India® (@TeslaClubIN) May 27, 2022
Frankly it's been 6+ plus since many reservation holders including me have paid $1,000 reservation fee and have been eagerly awaiting our cars. No.1 question we field from other reservation holders is why did Tesla choose to take reservations?
— Tesla Club India® (@TeslaClubIN) May 27, 2022Tesla India : Being promised and delayed since 2015https://t.co/5ZyBMBl7VA
— Tesla Club India® (@TeslaClubIN) May 27, 2022
You are allowed and you know that.
— Shadow (@mchellap) May 27, 2022
There are tarrifs you don't like, that can go away if you manufacture here. Please don't project an inaccurate picture of things.
????Thanks for supporting Indian alternatives to Tesla. Someday Indian version of Starlink as well— ????? ?????? ???????? (@KailashSwarup) May 27, 2022
— Tyler (@leedom_tyler) May 27, 2022
Elon we have an issue with the Chinese with the stuff they are doing at the border. Hence asking you to make your manufacturing facility in india so you get access to a 1.3 billion people market.
— Indian ???????? (@Indian188) May 27, 2022