This is a callout for all you Indian automobile enthusiasts, it’s time to get hyped. Tesla, the widely popular electric automaker might be ready to finally make its way to India this very year. And what’s even more exciting is the fact that you won’t have to wait much longer as the Model 3 will be launched in “summer this year”.
This major development about the company’s plans was conveyed by legendary innovator and Tesla CEO Elon Musk himself via Twitter. He is known to actively update the community and participate in discussions with users on the micro-blogging platform. The said update on the global launch prospects of the company was addressed to an individual’s query (Note: For those unaware, Summer in the west is defined by the period between the latter part of June and beginning of September).
@goel_ishan Hoping for summer this year
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2017
Earlier last year, Tesla had announced its plans to launch an affordable variant of their prevailing electric vehicles. And this birthed the new $35,000 (more than half the price) Model 3 variant, which garnered more than 400k reservations. The said vehicle is expected to go from 0 to 60 mph in under six seconds, and provide an estimated range of at least 215 miles.
Further, Musk had then stated that the affordable Model 3 sedan will be available to purchase in several new markets including India, New Zealand, Brazil, Singapore, and South Africa. Tesla even started taking pre-orders for $1,000 from interested consumers, the expected date being towards the end of 2017. But, there could certainly be delays depending on the production rate of the new Nevada-based Gigafactory.
Tesla has always been keen on expanding their presence to the Indian market. The company even explored manufacturing opportunities in the country to set up its Asian facilities back in 2014. But it had to skip on the opportunity due to certain tax liabilities and heavy import duty on vehicles as well as its components. Post this, government officials — PM Narendra Modi and transport minister Nitin Gadkari – have both shown a keen interest in bringing Tesla over to our country.
Post this, government officials, including PM Narendra Modi and transport minister Nitin Gadkari, have shown a keen interest in bringing Tesla over to our country. Gadkari offered the automaker land at major Indian ports to seamlessly manage the import and export to South and South East Asian countries. Modi, on the other hand, had the off chance to visit a Tesla factory in San Jose. His interest was piqued by the company’s innovative and sustainable practices, which he believes can be extremely helpful in the development of rural India. He even invited Musk to set up the massively huge Gigafactory in India.
Now coming back to our super-excited phase. All we want to witness in the coming months is an autonomous Tesla cruising on the battered and traffic-laden roads of India. The prominent challenge for the automaker in our country would firstly be the lack of charging stations, so one wouldn’t be able to take their cars for a long-distance journey. Secondly, it would be interesting to see if the Autopilot mode that comes integrated into vehicles will seamlessly work on the roads of our country.
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