[volkman10]

Tesla likely to skip India for now, as it has capital issues and doesn’t plan on pledging fresh investment into India in the near future.

The loss of interest in India comes as Tesla reported a second consecutive drop in quarterly deliveries globally and faces heightened competition in China. Musk announced major staff reductions in April, the EV maker’s first new model in years, the Cybertruck, has been slow to ramp up while construction of a new plant in Mexico has been delayed.

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[Aditya]

Tesla puts India investment plans on the back burner - Post moved to a new thread.

[Mortis]

It's understandable. In the US Teslas are cars for the middle class or upper middle class. In India they can only be Luxury cars at the prices they would sell for post import so they won't get volumes.

The biggest problem though is Teslas USP which is the widely available Supercharger network. It will take a long time and lots of money to set up even a barebones version of it in India. Without the Supercharger network, the value proposition of owning a Tesla is diminished.

[Cresterk]

Not surprised. They already learnt their lesson with China when they rolled out the red carpet treatment specially for them and then stole all the tech and intellectual property they needed to build EVs of their own, later buried them in lawsuits and are now taking over the world with their own EVs which undercut Tesla. They suspect the same thing is going to happen here too.

[Jimnyuser]

Money problems, declining sales in china, pricing pressure. They just wanted to sell cars here not build a plant. Govt called their bluff.

[Sedated]

Originally Posted by Cresterk

Not surprised. They already learnt their lesson with China when they rolled out the red carpet treatment specially for them and then stole all the tech and intellectual property they needed to build EVs of their own, later buried them in lawsuits and are now taking over the world with their own EVs which undercut Tesla. They suspect the same thing is going to happen here too.

Surprised people here still think like this after all the fake promises this company keeps making.

[volkman10]

Originally Posted by Sedated

Surprised people here still think like this after all the fake promises this company keeps making.

It was those in power who had these hopes!

Tesla ‘seriously looking’ at India as production, innovation base: IT minister


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[sandeepmdas]

Looks like this is what the mighty Tesla Autopilot does the best: taking U-turns.

Even if they launch their cars here in India (unlikely) and even if I can afford them (now looks more likely ) what would I do? I would pilot myself away from Tesla; I don't want a dead Tesla in my garage when Mr. Musk decides to take another U-turn and exit from India overnight.

On a serious note this is where the late Steve Jobs and his flamboyant, spiritual successor Elon Musk differs like night and day. When Mr. Jobs took decisions those were set on concrete. Everyone who depended on his company - be it a vendor, contractor, employee or customer - knew it: just blindly follow him, there's no plan B.

[Satkaj]

Elon behaves like a leader of an independent country rather than a company. He can getaway doing so since he is a genius.

Other than Tesla there are many other business interest's in India which no company would like to miss if they have to grow. Few years back he was much ahead and is still ahead in technology, but certainly it is not indispensable. World is working hard and will catch up soon. Especially country like India. China is far ahead though. He had to relay on China to keep Tesla relevant in time to come.

I would take any statement at this stage with pinch of salt that both parties are just trying to comfort each other after earlier fiasco. Would await clear direction from Tesla and Mr. Musk of their India plans.

[khallas009]

India is one of the fastest growing bigger economy, by delaying this investment Tesla is going to miss out on capitalizing the Indian market. Already Chinese brands are catching up in technology and tesla will have to run for their money. Indian players like Tata Mahindra needs to step up and get the early advantage of emerging Indian market.

[Quaser]

India may be big in size, fastest growing etc. However, the growth of the market size for cars is heavily dominated by budget conscious buyers chasing cars priced below 10 lakhs.

The market for Tesla cars costing over 45-50 lakhs is small & will remain small in the foreseeable future. Which is why Elon Musk isn't showing much interest.

[sachin_cs]

Originally Posted by Quaser

The market for Tesla cars costing over 45-50 lakhs is small & will remain small in the foreseeable future. Which is why Elon Musk isn't showing much interest.

If Mercedes, BMW even JLR for that matter can survive and make a profitable business in India then that does mean that India is a market for luxury cars too. Heck, even a 50L fortuner sells like a hot cake, there is no reason why Indian HNIs won’t be able to afford the 50L American car if the they want to. The bigger question is that if we want a 50L EV, without proper charging infra and that too from a company which is still in “talks” from last 5 years.

[RobotMan]

Originally Posted by Quaser

India may be big in size, fastest growing etc. However, the growth of the market size for cars is heavily dominated by budget conscious buyers chasing cars priced below 10 lakhs.

The market for Tesla cars costing over 45-50 lakhs is small & will remain small in the foreseeable future. Which is why Elon Musk isn't showing much interest.

My thoughts exactly.. For all the hype and pomp, we are still an extremely price sensitive market. The per capita income gap between India and China cannot be ignored.

Even if Tesla does enter the market, they won't be able to sell more than 3-4k vehicles per month and that number will taper within a few years.

On a slightly evil note, the government should subsidize their entry on the condition that Tesla constructs their superchargers OR gets into a technology sharing agreement with a big local partner. The network should be open to all manufacturers (Europe).
They build out a significant network, free market does its work and Tesla is Chevrolet-ed out of the market.
Indian OEMs are left with a sparkling, efficient supercharger network which hopefully they can maintain.

On a side note though, there can be a lot of value for local OEMs to partner with Tesla. For all the hate Elon rightfully gets, Tesla engineers have done some pretty groundbreaking stuff (48V architecture, the Ether-loop, giga castings etc)

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by Cresterk

Not surprised. They already learnt their lesson with China when they rolled out the red carpet treatment specially for them and then stole all the tech and intellectual property they needed to build EVs of their own, later buried them in lawsuits and are now taking over the world with their own EVs which undercut Tesla. They suspect the same thing is going to happen here too.

This is so not true. If it is so simple what stops Mahindra and Tata from reverse engineering a Tesla and dominate the world? The reason China dominates is multifold -

They own the battery raw material supply chain and this hasn't happened in a single day - it is more than a decade of single minded focus, hard work and investments in Africa and places elsewhere to mine the minerals. They can undercut any manufacturer when it comes EV's. There is a reason they are the biggest battery supplier in the world and now they are also the biggest exporter of cars.

Manufacturing and software advantage - their manufacturing smarts and software are way better than anything from anywhere else around the world except Tesla. There is a reason why Tesla received a red carpet treatment from China - stronger competition means better products and if you can why not learn from the best.

Chinese higher education now is really good and as a result they have great engineers - they have the best universities which can easily compete with the Ivy league in US and they file more patents than any other country in the world.

Originally Posted by Satkaj

Other than Tesla there are many other business interest's in India which no company would like to miss if they have to grow.

Like what for example?

Originally Posted by Satkaj

Few years back he was much ahead and is still ahead in technology, but certainly it is not indispensable. World is working hard and will catch up soon. Especially country like India. China is far ahead though. He had to relay on China to keep Tesla relevant in time to come.

Ofcourse they have to rely on China, so do BMW, Mercedes, Audi, VW and others. It is the single biggest automobile market in the world - that and the fact that their domestic auto companies are so good means that the competition is incredibly intense which is why European car makers arent able to compete in the EV market. They now have to rely on tie ups with local Chinese companies even for someone as big and resourceful as Mercedes.

Originally Posted by khallas009

India is one of the fastest growing bigger economy, by delaying this investment Tesla is going to miss out on capitalizing the Indian market. Already Chinese brands are catching up in technology and tesla will have to run for their money. Indian players like Tata Mahindra needs to step up and get the early advantage of emerging Indian market.

Fastest growing economy we may be but the wealth is only growing for the select few. 800 million people relying on government for their daily sustenance is a not something to be proud of. Also, the cabal that is getting rich is literally in commodity businesses with no world breaking revolutionary technology or innovation or anything that we could even sell to the rest of the developed world.

Originally Posted by sachin_cs

If Mercedes, BMW even JLR for that matter can survive and make a profitable business in India then that does mean that India is a market for luxury cars too. Heck, even a 50L fortuner sells like a hot cake, there is no reason why Indian HNIs won’t be able to afford the 50L American car if the they want to. The bigger question is that if we want a 50L EV, without proper charging infra and that too from a company which is still in “talks” from last 5 years.

It is all about making the best of your investment - I dont want to merely survive after investing billions of dollars in the hope that will earn a measly profit at the end of it all. Certainly not Tesla and as a Tesla shareholder, I fully agree. Also the regulatory landscape is literally random with poorly thought out laws and regulations which can be changed just like that. A lot of businesses still work on connection than competitive advantage in this country and that remains a fact.

Also look at how much of that 50l actual goes to Toyota vs what goes to the government. And 36k odd units in a country with a population of 1.4bn is not hot cakes by any stretch of imagination. Toyota sold more than 70k Hilux/Fortuner in Australian market alone. A country with a population less than that of New Delhi.

[Quaser]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

Fastest growing economy we may be but the wealth is only growing for the select few. 800 million people relying on government for their daily sustenance is a not something to be proud of. Also, the cabal that is getting rich is literally in commodity businesses with no world breaking technology or tech or anything that we could even sell to the rest of the developed world.

the regulatory landscape is literally random with poorly thought out laws and regulations which can be changed just like that. A lot of businesses still work on connection than competitive advantage in this country and that remains a fact.

Spot On!

Also look at how much of that 50l actual goes to Toyota vs what goes to the government. And 36k odd units in a country with a population of 1.4bn is not hot cakes by any stretch of imagination. Toyota sold more than 70k Hilux/Fortuner in Australian market alone. A country with a population less than that of New Delhi.

Absolutely, selling a fraction of what a country in Europe or elsewhere with populations that are 1/20th or lesser than India doesn't make India a market that can be called "sells like hot cakes"!
While India may offer a growing market, neither the population nor the HNI numbers are anywhere close to other developed countries that are far smaller.