Tesla's plans to sell electric vehicles in India, but may face further delay over high import duties. The Indian ministry of heavy industries has not approved any reduction of import duties for electric cars.
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Tesla had appealed to the transport and Auto industry ministers last month to slash the taxes and duties levied on the import of vehicles to 40 per cent from the current range of 60 per cent to 100 per cent. Tesla plans to import vehicles and sell wholly built units before setting up manufacturing plants in India.
The current import taxes on vehicles in India is around 60 -100%. Tesla vehicles are already expensive and the added import duties are going to make the vehicles even more inaccessible to the customers in India. "No such proposal is under consideration in Ministry of Heavy Industries," minister Krishan Pal Gurjar told parliament on Monday, referring to the ministry in charge of making policies for the auto industry. He added that the government is however taking steps to promote the use of electric cars by lowering domestic taxes. While the government has introduced several measures to promote local manufacturing and use of electric vehicles, it is unlikely that any special provision will be made for Tesla. Musk has already floated the possibility of a local factory once it starts selling the imported vehicles but that seems like a long wait for Indian EV Industry. |
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PluginIndia's Take
This was an expected outcome and a setback for Tesla. There is a large luxury car and ICE car lobby and they seem to have won. The more time Tesla takes to enter the Indian market, the Indian ICE car and MNC OEM's will feel less pressured to launch electric cars in India. Another debate we discussed last week was about the merits and demerits of having protectionist policies vs letting corporates sell CKD kits willy nilly.
We are not sure what the repercussions of this would be? What if Tesla wont be bothered about the Indian market for next 5 years?
We at PluginIndia are not that bothered about that, as Tesla would not launch a sub Rs 10 lakh small electric car in India for next 10 years anyway. So until then we have Strom and OLA electric car to counter the BIG ICE OEM mafia!
We are not sure what the repercussions of this would be? What if Tesla wont be bothered about the Indian market for next 5 years?
We at PluginIndia are not that bothered about that, as Tesla would not launch a sub Rs 10 lakh small electric car in India for next 10 years anyway. So until then we have Strom and OLA electric car to counter the BIG ICE OEM mafia!
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