[ruchiragrawal]

Also, Tesla's Bioweapon Defense Mode by using HEPA filters would fare well (if brought with Model 3) amongst certain buyers, since currently, barely any car boasts of a feature like this (one I know of is the Kia Carnival, which has an air filtration system inside)

[landcruiser123]

Tesla better price the Model 3 really well. In the US, it is equivalent of a corolla/civic in terms space & interior quality.

I think their real gamechanger will be the new smaller electric car Elon plans to develop for the primarily for the European (and hopefully Asian) market.

[paperweight]

Good news for those who love EVs and have lots of money.
There's an old saying: A fool and his money are soon parted.
There's a new saying: If you buy a BEV, carry a portable generator in your boot along with some petrol.
I wonder how these things fare in waterlogged streets. I read somewhere about a guy who bought an inappropriately named smart hybrid car and somebody may have left a bung open somewhere and when that guy drove through a waterlogged street, the battery under the seat in the cabin was ruined and the replacement cost was in the region of 60K. Tesla's battery will be much bigger and much lower....

[SASproject]

Originally Posted by paperweight

Good news for those who love EVs and have lots of money.

And for people who like acceleration, technology or something that leaves the earth a little better than burning petrol does.

Originally Posted by paperweight

There's a new saying: If you buy a BEV, carry a portable generator in your boot along with some petrol.

- The current EV cars have a maximum range of ~640 Kms (which goes even further in city environments)
- The upcoming models from Tesla, which has had a history of delivering on their cars, are going to have 800+ Kms

If a car can cover *almost* a month of usage for an average person, I think the saying does not really hold its own.

Originally Posted by paperweight

I wonder how these things fare in waterlogged streets. I read somewhere about a guy who bought an inappropriately named smart hybrid car and somebody may have left a bung open somewhere and when that guy drove through a waterlogged street, the battery under the seat in the cabin was ruined and the replacement cost was in the region of 60K. Tesla's battery will be much bigger and much lower....

It does just fine, unlike a petrol engine it does not need oxygen for combustion. Here is are example videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGmE...ture=emb_title

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb_glRxHjcQ

I also have personal experience and it did just fine.

I get that EVs seem to have all these drawbacks, just like petrol cars did vs horses. But if you take a look at the cutting edge its pretty much inevitable - and this comes from a skeptic who eventually realized there is no going back from an EV for most people. If nothing else for the simple reason that "kitna deti hain" is 10X better with EVs.

[Turbanator]

Model 3 retails at 36000 USD, that translates to around 27 lac. Currently electric passenger car CBU are taxed with custom duty at 40% but given the way government is keen to get Tesla, we can expect some relaxation. GST on electric vehicles is 5%. So even if everything remains same, we can expect starting price of Model 3 at 40 lac. Even if Tesla decides to sell at little premium over US prices, 45 lac will be a very good price.

Regarding chargers or other infrastructure, Tesla can built much faster and better than anyone else. And given the less distances we normally travel and our weather, a range of 400 Kms is enough. One can easily charge the car at home overnight.

It can become a big headache for many premium car makers here if Tesla decides to go fair on prices.

[Monolithic]

Originally Posted by spoth001

Tesla has done tons of research and they decided to bet on India. Ofcourse there will be takers, there is no second doubt about it. But what the Indian market fails in are the following grey areas:

1. Charging network (I will give 0 out of 10 here as per current situation. No news on Teslas established charging stations, if they intend to launch in June 2021 then the grids should have been ready by now ?)

I think Tesla will probably invest in Supercharger network just like how it did in other markets. But that will really depend on how many cars they can sell.

Apart from long distance trips, as long as car owners can charge at their homes, charging won't be a problem.

[Somu2009]

Found this in today's Economic Times, so thought it'll be relevant to share.

[el lobo 6061]

Originally Posted by SASproject

My 2c as a Tesla owner.
- A 0-60 mph of 3.2 s
- The above acceleration with absolutely no launch control, always ready to go
- Running costs are 1/10th that of normal non-performance car
- Negligible maintenance costs even compared to Japanese, forget the Germans

Originally Posted by Napalm

Lot of people mentioning the charging infrastructure as a problem, which in my opinion is a non-issue if you know Tesla’s policy of creating/building their own fast charging infrastructure called “Superchargers” in every market they launch their cars in.

Reading both your post, anyone in the market for 60 lakh rupee car has to wait for Tesla Model 3 launch.

Thanks for the insight.

[saikishor]

“No dealerships expected”. Lets see how that goes with the Indian market. No doubt this will be a niche product, but how confident will customers be while booking a 60 lac rupee car through a portal remains as a question mark. Or maybe who knows, this might spawn a new car buying experience altogether.

[Napalm]

Originally Posted by SASproject

If a car can cover *almost* a month of usage for an average person, I think the saying does not really hold its own.

“I wonder how these things fare in waterlogged streets.”

It does just fine, unlike a petrol engine it does not need oxygen for combustion. Here is are example videos:

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=VGmE...ture=emb_title

Totally agree with you. A lot of these misconceptions(FUD) were created by mainstream-media in the west when Tesla was in it’s initial phase of model 3(Most likely funded by the oil industry).The same is now coming to India. Or it is just anxiety of a new technology, but I find that hard to believe because India is no stranger to EVs now(Kona, MG ZS, Nexon-EV Ather-450, Revolt etc).

Waterlogged streets are not a phenomenon unique to India. Western countries are still countries, not heaven. They too have civic issues like India(May be lesser than India).

There are other major challenges/issues like snowing and icing of the cars in US and Europe due to the weather conditions there.

Anyways, the point is that the made(& designed)-in-India EVs like Nexon-EV & Ather-450 have an IP67 water-proof rating for their battery & electric motor and are able to handle our monsoon conditions very well. Surely a luxury car EV, from the best EV maker Tesla, will be designed even better to handle such things.

Plus as you mentioned, an EV doesn’t need an air intake, so it will still fare better than an IC engine vehicle during water-logging.

Originally Posted by SASproject

If nothing else for the simple reason that "kitna deti hain" is 10X better with EVs.

This is the main reason why I believe luxury car EVs will sell well in India. The savings on fuel, maintenance & service are immense.

Tesla model 3 is a direct competitor to BMW 3 series in every market.

In India too, a BMW 3 series owner spends almost 1/3rd(or more) of the price of a BMW 3 series on it’s fuel, maintenance & service cost in India over a period of say ~5 years. If Tesla model 3 reduces that cost by 10 times, even a millionaire in India will think of Tesla model 3 instead of BMW 3 series.

If you have/install solar panels on your home(or at your office) then you can charge your EV with solar energy for free. Many people in India are already doing this, for example, in the video below.

https://youtu.be/oWdQg9BlsDg

https://youtu.be/iuId9fJKFLw

https://youtu.be/tbkiKe3Bgfs

Such savings will be even higher if you consider higher(Performance) variants of model 3 or Model S,X & Y against similar variants of a BMW, Audi etc. This is one of the reasons why Tesla has eaten into the market share of other luxury car OEMs, especially BMW in the western countries and there is no reason why it will not happen in India too.

[SKC-auto]

Originally Posted by saikishor

“No dealerships expected”. Lets see how that goes with the Indian market. No doubt this will be a niche product, but how confident will customers be while booking a 60 lac rupee car through a portal remains as a question mark. Or maybe who knows, this might spawn a new car buying experience altogether.

This would be the best part of the Tesla experience, no haggling for price discounts, the family can sit comfortably in a couch at their home check all options( not many options either just select battery size and color) and order one.

It's not like Tesla will import the car and send it to your place, they have to setup a service center in every city they sell, probably they will start with service centers in large cities.

Originally Posted by Napalm

Waterlogged streets are not a phenomenon unique to India. Western countries are still countries, not heaven. They too have civic issues like India(May be lesser than India).

Tesla model 3 is a direct competitor to BMW 3 series in every market.

In India too, a BMW 3 series owner spends almost 1/3rd(or more) of the price of a BMW 3 series on it’s fuel, maintenance & service cost in India over a period of say ~5 years. If Tesla model 3 reduces that cost by 10 times, even a millionaire in India will think of Tesla model 3 instead of BMW 3 series.

Once I was discussing with a cab driver who had the same concern about electric shock, I told him if properly designed electric motors can run under water for very long, he was convinced when I gave the example of submersible pumps.

The main USP of TM3 are running costs which are lesser than a Hero Splendor(100cc bike) with a safety, pickup and luxury higher than a M3.

[saikishor]

Originally Posted by SKC-auto

This would be the best part of the Tesla experience, no haggling for price discounts, the family can sit comfortably in a couch at their home check all options( not many options either just select battery size and color) and order one.

It's not like Tesla will import the car and send it to your place, they have to setup a service center in every city they sell, probably they will start with service centers in large cities.


Yes I do agree about the convenience of booking a car sitting on a couch from your home. But we're talking about 60 lac rupee niche products. There still might be a small number of customers who would like to have a good look before putting their hard earned money. And Tesla is a brand which is entering the market for the first time. So I really feel they should set up experience centres for showcasing their products and their cutting edge technology which results in superb performance and range numbers which no other EV on sale in India offers.

[aashishnb]

Originally Posted by saikishor

It's not like Tesla will import the car and send it to your place, they have to setup a service center in every city they sell, probably they will start with service centers in large cities.


Yes I do agree about the convenience of booking a car sitting on a couch from your home. But we're talking about 60 lac rupee niche products. There still might be a small number of customers who would like to have a good look before putting their hard earned money. And Tesla is a brand which is entering the market for the first time. So I really feel they should set up experience centres for showcasing their products and their cutting edge technology which results in superb performance and range numbers which no other EV on sale in India offers.

Just a thought, they can outsource the servicing (for parts like suspension, tyres, etc.) or perhaps set up their own servicing unit. Unfortunately, the likes of Carnation are not there any more.
As far as showroom / experience centre is concerned, why not just have a few vehicles on the ground and just send them to the customers, perhaps leave it with them to use for a day or a few hours. Can be easily achieved via Hertz, Avis, and the likes of premium car rentals!!!

[klgiridhar]

Originally Posted by Napalm

Lot of people mentioning the charging infrastructure as a problem, which in my opinion is a non-issue if you know Tesla’s policy of creating/building their own fast charging infrastructure called “Superchargers” in every market they launch their cars in.

Are you sure that they will be setting up super chargers? Didn't find any article mentioning about them. If yes, then it will be a game changer. Teslas already have very good range and those who want only one car in their home will then find them as really enticing purchase options

Currently, the problem with EVs is we can only have them as secondary vehicles, not suitable for long highway trips.

[Napalm]

Originally Posted by klgiridhar

Are you sure that they will be setting up super chargers? Didn't find any article mentioning about them.

As I mentioned, I am sure because it is a matter of global policy for Tesla, to make the whole road-trip fast-charging experience seamless for their customers. (This is not a matter of decision for Tesla). They have installed superchargers in every country that they operate in. This is pretty much implicit.

That’s why they have supercharger info on their website, irrespective of whether you select any country.

https://www.tesla.com/charging

https://www.tesla.com/supercharger

Just look at their global map of superchargers in the below link. They have superchargers in Jordan, UAE, Israel and even in Kazakhstan & Iceland too.
https://www.tesla.com/en_AE/findus?b...tion%20charger

In China, where they launched model 3 within last one year, they have already built more than 50 V3 supercharges locations in less than a year.

Of course, they need not be as aggressive as Ather energy which builds its charging infrastructure BEFORE launching its EVs(relatively short range 2W EVs) in a particular city.

Tesla doesn’t need to do that because they have cars with one of the highest ranges in the automotive industry. But they will build it gradually.