EV car race: Will it be a Tesla vs Tata Motors battle on Indian roads?
Tesla to start manufacturing in India, ensures that the king of Indian EVs and the king of American EVs drive in separate lanes but Tata Motors and Tesla may race against each other in the luxury car segment.
Posing competition risk to a few of the upcoming models of M&M and Tata Motors at the upper end of the SUV market, the policy allows 8,000 units of electric vehicles above $35,000 (Rs 29 lakh) to be imported annually at lower duty of 15% vs 70-100% currently for 5 years against an investment of $500 million for local manufacturing.
The import of EVs below $35,000 would continue to attract import duty in excess of 70%, thereby protecting Indian OEMs operating in that price point.
«The government's emphasis and ambitious plans on the EV front would attract global EV players like Tesla, which would surely invite competition for the likes of market leader Tata Motors in the premium EV space. TaMo has big plans to electrify its existing premium models and bring in new EV models in the premium space. However, the global EV leader Tesla can spoil their party considering their experience, expertise and EV know-how and scale of operations,» Ashwin Patil, Senior Research Analyst at LKP Securities, told ET Markets.
Estimates done by Nomura show that Tesla's starting on-road price in India for Model 3 (RWD) could be around Rs 51 lakh and go up to Rs 1.2 crore for Model S Plaid.
At these price points, Tesla will largely compete with luxury car OEMs in India as it does globally. «We believe since the volumes will be
