Electric car maker Tesla has initiated talks with the government to break into India through the single-brand retail route, which comes with several riders including mandatory sourcing of up to 30 per cent of the value of goods sold in the country. It has written to the government expressing interest in entering the market through the single-brand retail window. Founder Elon Musk tweeted about the high import duty and sourcing requirements.
Sources said granting an exemption may not be easy and in any case with duty in excess of 100 per cent, the import route did not make sense. There remains no clarity on how Tesla planned to provide after-sales service in India and develop infrastructure to charge the vehicles. While the plan was to hit the Indian market this summer, Musk had pointed to difficulties in complying with the local sourcing requirement which can be waived for “high-technology goods” due to the absence of a vendor base.
The government had responded by suggesting that the local sourcing requirement did not exist for locally manufactured goods.
