
Elon Musk's India pitstop: ‘Make in India' is off the cards for now, but are Teslas going to be at least made for India?
What makes it worse is that Tesla would be importing its Model Y saloon units from its Shanghai gigafactory in China, with no guidance on manufacturing in India. Tesla has no plans of starting production in India for the time being, Union Heavy Industries Minister H D Kumaraswamy had said last month. It is unclear whether Musk has given any further guidance to the Indian government on its manufacturing plans in India, but sources in the government indicate that there is nothing on that front.
Navigating Indian roads
There are also issues around whether the car would be tweaked in any way to better suit Indian conditions, which could be far more challenging than in most other countries where Tesla sells.
Take full self driving (FSD) as an example, for which the company proposes to charge Rs 6 lakh extra, over and above its duty-laden price of Rs 59-68 lakhs – double the saloon's sticker price in the US. What is unclear is whether the company has examined if FSD would work in India's traffic conditions, and where the data from its Indian customers would be stored. In China, for instance, Musk has made multiple unannounced visits to Beijing discuss the rollout of FSD software and permission to transfer data overseas. Tesla has been offering FSD for subscription in China for over four years, but with a restricted set of features that limit the system to operations such as automated lane changing or parking assist. Since 2021, Tesla has stored all data collected by its Chinese fleet in the country, as required by the ciuntry's regulators, and has not transferred any data back to the US. Musk has been desperately lobbying for an exemption on this. In India, there is little clarity on what Tesla's terms of use of the data are.
In the US too, auto safety regulators had opened an investigation into whether Tesla's recall in December 2023 of more than 2 million vehicles to install new 'Autopilot safeguards' was adequate following a series of crashes.
'The activation and use of these features are dependent on achieving reliability far in excess of human drivers as demonstrated by billions of miles of experience, as well as regulatory approval, which may take longer in some jurisdictions. As these self-driving features evolve, your car will be continuously upgraded through over-the-air software updates,' Tesla said on FSD.
Then there is the hardware of the car itself. Despite its 19-inch alloys, whether the ground clearance of the Model Y would be enough to negotiate India's pothole ridden roads remains to be seen. The versions sold in other markets has a ground clearance of 167 mm, which is pretty low for a car that is really long (4,797 mm in length).
There are more features that are out of sync with India's driving conditions. The version of the Model Y to be sold in India would have heated rear seats – definitely not a feature needed in Mumbai, or for that matter Delhi and Gurugram, the three places where the company hopes to retail its cars. The car has heated and cooled front seats.
Add to that the fact that the full-glass roof of the Model Y with no inside cover to cut the sun off is unlikely to fare well against India's summer heat. The company plans to install 16 DC superchargers in Mumbai, but that could be inadequate even if they sell a moderate number of cars. The company will give home chargers with the car. It has adopted the direct route to sell in India, and not the franchisee route, as is the case in other markets too.
China, global sales slumping
The company's entry into India also comes at a time when it is struggling in China, one of its key markets. Tesla's vehicle sales in China dropped 18% year-over-year between January and May 2025, with key rivals like BYD seeing a surge, and newer rivals like Xiaomi launching cars that can match Tesla's capabilities at a lower price point. While India is expected to be a small sales market for the company, relatively, it is no surprise that it is looking to expand to the one of the world's biggest automotive markets in hopes of finding new buyers.
A majority of Tesla's sales come from the US, with China contributing around 20%. In the recently concluded second quarter, Tesla's deliveries fell 13.5%, with the company seemingly headed towards a second year of shrinking sales, also dragged down by Musk's political affiliation. Besides, for many buyers, Tesla's lineup has become old, with no fresh model updates.
Anil Sasi is National Business Editor with the Indian Express and writes on business and finance issues. He has worked with The Hindu Business Line and Business Standard and is an alumnus of Delhi University. ... Read More
Soumyarendra Barik is Special Correspondent with The Indian Express and reports on the intersection of technology, policy and society. With over five years of newsroom experience, he has reported on issues of gig workers' rights, privacy, India's prevalent digital divide and a range of other policy interventions that impact big tech companies. He once also tailed a food delivery worker for over 12 hours to quantify the amount of money they make, and the pain they go through while doing so. In his free time, he likes to nerd about watches, Formula 1 and football. ... Read More
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Time of India
26 minutes ago
- Time of India
Ashish Kacholia invested in this SME IPO that has 42% GMP. Check all details
Patel Chem Specialities is set to launch its Rs 58.80 crore IPO today, with the price fixed at Rs 82–84 per share. Ahmedabad-based Patel Chem Specialities launched its Rs 58.80 crore IPO today, priced at Rs 82–84 per share. The IPO, entirely a fresh issue, closes on July 29 and plans to list on BSE SME on August 1. Ashish Kacholia, along with other investors, participated in the anchor book, raising Rs 16.69 crore. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Price band and GMP Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Company overview Ahmedabad-based excipient maker Patel Chem Specialities will launch its Rs 58.80 crore IPO today at a price band of Rs 82–84 per share. The offer is entirely a fresh issue of 70 lakh equity shares and will close for subscription on July 29. The company will list on the BSE SME platform, with a tentative listing date of August IPO has drawn early attention after ace investor Ashish Kacholia , via Bengal Finance and Investment, was allotted 5.97 lakh shares as part of the anchor book at Rs 84 per share -- accounting for nearly one-third of the anchor notable investors include Meru Investment Fund, Zeal Global Opportunities Fund, and Ventura Fund I. In total, Rs 16.69 crore was raised from anchor issue is priced at Rs 82–84 per share with a lot size of 1,600 shares. The grey market premium (GMP) is hovering at around 42% over the issue price, indicating strong interest ahead of Chem is a manufacturer of pharmaceutical excipients and specialty chemicals like sodium carboxymethyl cellulose and pregelatinized operates from two plants in Gujarat and exports to over five continents. For FY25, it posted a 28% revenue growth to Rs 105.5 crore, while PAT jumped 38% to Rs 10.57 proceeds from the IPO will be used for funding capital expenditure requirement of the company and other general corporate purposes.


Time of India
26 minutes ago
- Time of India
IT sector adds fewer hands; BigBasket's muted financials
IT sector adds fewer hands; BigBasket's muted financials Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox? Also in the letter: Top six IT firms saw staff additions plunge 72% in Q1 Steep decline: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys led what little growth there was, adding of 5,060 and 210 employees, respectively The other four, HCLTech, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, and LTIMindtree, together cut 1,423 jobs. Big picture: Quote, unquote: Also Read: Foot in the door: Also Read: BigBasket loses steam as quick commerce intensifies Driving the news: Tata Sons' FY25 annual report reveals a 3% dip in turnover for BigBasket's business-to-consumer (B2C) unit, Innovative Retail Concepts, which clocked Rs 7,673 crore. Its business-to-business (B2B) arm, Supermarket Grocery Supplies, fared worse, falling 7% to Rs 2,227 crore. Losses for the B2C business widened sharply to Rs 1,851 crore, up from Rs 1,267 crore in FY24. Also Read: Tata 1mg back in investment mode after strong FY25 growth By the numbers: Consolidated revenue jumped 20% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 2,392 crore. Tata 1mg Technologies, its main entity, posted Rs 375 crore in revenue and Rs 65 crore in PAT (tripling YoY). Subsidiary Tata 1mg Healthcare recorded revenue of Rs 2,016 crore but incurred a loss of Rs 342 crore. Coforge outperforms peers: Net profit is at Rs 317.4 crore. is at Rs 317.4 crore. Revenue surged over 54% to Rs 3,688.6 crore. surged over 54% to Rs 3,688.6 crore. Growth was led by the Americas business, which improved 72.4% from the same period last year. Contrary to top-tier hiring trends, Coforge's global workforce increased by 1,164. Persistent Systems posts profit growth: Net profit was at Rs 424.9 crore, helped mainly by foreign exchange gains. was at Rs 424.9 crore, helped mainly by foreign exchange gains. Revenue increased by 21.8% YoY to Rs 3,335.9 crore. increased by 21.8% YoY to Rs 3,335.9 crore. BFSI grew 30.7% YoY, and software, hi-tech and emerging industries verticals saw a 14.1% YoY surge. Sponsor ETtech Top 5 & Morning Dispatch! Why it matters: The opportunity: Reach a highly engaged audience of decision-makers. Boost your brand's visibility among the tech-savvy community. Custom sponsorship options to align with your brand's goals. What's next: Pine Lab's Setu boosts top deck with key senior hires Driving the news: Anand Raisinghani from SAP India has stepped in as the chief executive officer, taking over from cofounder Sahil Kini. Prashanth Nimmagada joined as chief technology officer in April. Santosh Subramanian assumed the role of finance head in March. Nikhil Ratanpal is the director of product development. Setting context: Also Read: SuperK raises Rs 100 crore from Binny Bansal, Mithun Sacheti; cricketer Shubman Gill joins cap table Deal details: The round was led by Flipkart cofounder Binny Bansal's 3State Ventures and CaratLane founder Mithun Sacheti. Existing investors Blume Ventures and Xeed Ventures also participated. Adding a touch of star power, Indian Test skipper Shubman Gill also joined the captable. By the numbers: Keeping Count Other Top Stories By Our Reporters PhysicsWallah's road to IPO: Karnataka tech ecosystem's fundraising plummets: Global Picks We Are Reading Happy Friday! Hiring in India's IT sector declined significantly in the April-June quarter. This and more in today's ETtech Morning Dispatch.■ Setu rejigs top shelf■ SuperK raises funds■ PhysicsWallah IPO gets Sebi nodIndia's $280 billion sector experienced a sharp slowdown in hiring during the April-June quarter, with the top six IT companies adding just 3,847 employees in Q1 represents a nearly 72% drop from the 13,935 additions in the previous are leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to maintain, or even grow, revenues without increasing say the focus is shifting towards efficiency, digital transformation, and targeted hiring. As business models evolve, companies are investing more in upskilling their workforce and adopting smarter recruitment strategies, they add.'While early indicators for FY26 suggest a cautious rebound—with top IT firms projecting higher fresher intake linked to an increase in the number of projects coming to India, hiring will remain skill-driven and unlikely to return to earlier volumes,' said Neeti Sharma, CEO of Teamlease hiring, once the backbone of IT's pyramid-style staffing, has halved compared to pre-pandemic years, according to Teamlease total, the six forms collectively employ around 16.25 lakh people, which is still below the 16.58 lakh recorded at the end of June Digital-owned BigBasket is feeling the heat as quick commerce players, such as Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart, tighten their grip on urban grocery demand. The pressure is showing in the contrast, Tata Digital's epharmacy arm, 1mg, has bounced back with strong momentum Mid-tier IT company Coforge recorded a 138.4% YoY increase in net profit, with revenue also IT services company reported a 38.7% YoY increase in net profit for the April-June quarter. It was, however, marginally lower than the previous two Top 5 and Morning Dispatch are must-reads for India's tech and business leaders, including startup founders, investors, policy makers, industry insiders and Reach out to us at spotlightpartner@ to explore sponsorship infrastructure company Setu, owned by Pine Labs, has made significant leadership changes in recent a move to strengthen its executive team, the company appointed several key figures to vital Labs acquired the fintech venture in June 2022. Setu provides a technology stack that allows companies to offer financial services on top of their existing operations. Among its range of products, Setu offers APIs (application programming interfaces) for bill payments, customer onboarding and KYC, payments via UPI, and digital Thontepu (left) and Neeraj Menta, founders, SuperKSuperK, a value-first grocery retailer operating in small towns, has raised Rs 100 crore in fresh funding The retailer grew nearly 15% in FY25, up from Rs 85 crore the previous year. It now targets an annualised Rs 2,000–3,000 crore business in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana alone over the next five years. The latest round values the company at 2–2.5x its previous Rs 160 crore valuation.(L-R) Prateek Maheshwari and Alakh Pandey, founders, PhysicswallahEdtech startup PhysicsWallah has obtained approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for an initial public offering, according to a notification on the markets regulator's startups raised $1.7 billion in the first half of 2025 (H1 2025), according to a report by data intelligence platform Tracxn , with Bengaluru-based companies leading. The funding level has fallen 30% from the $2.4 billion raised in the second half of 2024 (H2 2024), and is 44% lower than the $3 billion raised during the same period last year (H1 2024).■ Microsoft put older versions of SharePoint on life support; hackers are taking advantage ( Wired ■ AI 'a great opportunity for artists' says head of Stable Diffusion owner ( FT ■ Unleashing the AI jobs revolution in Africa ( Rest of World


Time of India
26 minutes ago
- Time of India
Bajaj Finance Finds Dynamic Support at 50 DEMA; Technicals Point to More Upside, says Shivangi Sarda
'Bajaj Finance stock has outpaced in its sector and has been making higher lows from the last eight months. Traders can buy the stock for a target of Rs 1010 in the next 2-3 weeks,' Shivangi Sarda, Analyst, Derivatives and Technical Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, said. Show more Show less