Indian authorities have quashed all the rumours that claim that it is considering duty waiver for Elon Musk-led Tesla. The announcement came amid reports that Tesla was discussing an investment proposal to make about half a million electric vehicles annually at a local factory.
Even though India remains keen for Tesla to manufacture vehicles within the country, the company had previously said it wanted to begin with exports in order to test the strength of demand in the country. “Any duty waiver for Tesla is not under active consideration of the Department of Revenue, as of now,” Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra told Reuters on Thursday. The US automaker’s India entry plans were put on hold last year as the government refused to lower import taxes on its cars. India levies as much as 100% import tax on electric vehicles. In May this year the company had held renewed discussions with officials about incentives being offered by the government for its cars and battery manufacturing.
Tesla has set-up gigafactories in only two countries outside of the USA, in Shanghai in China, where the total passenger vehicle market is 27 million units annually and one in every four vehicles sold is an EV, and In Berlin-Brandenburg in Germany, which alone is an over 2.5 million units market with a nearly 20% EV penetration, but also serves other European nations with a high degree of EV penetration. By contrast, both EVs and luxury cars form a very small percentage of the total passenger vehicle market in India.
