According to the latest reports by Reuters, Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc has put on hold the plans to sell electric vehicles in India. The company has stopped the search for showrooms and reassigned some of its domestic team. The decision comes as Tesla could not secure lower import taxes from the Indian government. Tesla had been trying to achieve the same for more than a year.
Tesla wanted to import electric vehicles from its production hubs in the United States and China at lower tariffs to India. However, the Indian government was against the idea, especially about importing electric vehicles from China. It pushed Tesla to start manufacturing facilities locally before lowering the tariff. As of now, the tariff on imported vehicles is as high as 100%.
Although German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz agreed to start assembling one of its electric cars in India, Tesla did not yield. As all its efforts to convince the Indian government went in vain, Tesla decided to hold the project. Tesla had been looking for showroom spaces in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Now, it halted all searches. Tesla is yet to comment on this regard.
Tesla had been trying to gain an advantage in India’s small yet growing electric vehicles market that is currently dominated by domestic automaker Tata Motors.
