Following its record-breaking EV deliveries and energy storage deployments in Q4 2024, Tesla’s entry into India is generating buzz in the country’s EV market.
Tesla says the Model Y is expected to be the best-selling vehicle globally for the year, with an improved version now available worldwide. The company has made significant investments in manufacturing, AI training, and energy storage to support future growth.
Tesla has manufactured 1,773,443 electric vehicles in 2024 as compared with 1,845,985 in 2023 and 1,369,611 in 2022. Tesla delivered 1,704,093 Model Y in 2024 as compared with 1,739,707 in 2023. The reduction in both production and delivery indicates that Tesla needs new EV markets to grow.
Tesla has EV manufacturing units California, Nevada and Texas (the United States); Shanghai (China), and Brandenburg (Germany).
Tesla also reduced its cost of goods sold (COGS) per vehicle to an all-time low of under $35,000, mainly due to lower raw material costs.
Looking ahead, 2025 is expected to be a transformative year with advancements in Full Self-Driving (FSD). Tesla aims to surpass human driving safety levels and plans to introduce an unsupervised FSD option and launch its Robotaxi service in parts of the U.S. The company is also working on bringing FSD (Supervised) to Europe and China in 2025.
Gartner views
Pedro Pacheco, VP Analyst at Gartner, has shared his views India strategy for Tesla in India.
What should be the India strategy for Tesla in India?
Tesla traditionally uses a similar playbook on every market it enters, consisting on real direct sales (they own their own dealerships) and providing high-quality public charging through their own charging network. Such approach has proven quite successful in beating other BEV competitors, even those with lower price products. However, it’s also likely Tesla may eventually be launching lower cost models in the future, something that would be an important push for success in the Indian market. However, overall, I believe it’s Tesla’s software and digital tech that probably will be the most captivating point for Indian target customers.
Can Tesla take on established EV players in India?
I believe they have strong chances of doing so, especially if they expand their range to add lower-price models.
Are Indians looking for costly EVs at present?
Tesla has had the habit of creating a market paradigm by being able to sell expensive vehicles in large quantities – for instance, the Model Y has been the world’s best-selling model overall, two years in a row. As such, we should expect Teslas to sell well above what we would expect for their retail price.
What should be the focus of the Indian government to expand EV charging infrastructure?
The Indian government should essentially avoid some of the mistakes done in a number of western countries. This means: make sure chargers are installed in places that are truly convenient for users, uptime and service quality must be high and prices should be kept low. If this happens, I am sure India will be able to build, on the long run, an advanced and vast EV charging network.
What are the challenges in the Indian EV market?
Concerning passenger cars, the current challenges are normal for a country still in a somewhat early stage of adoption. Consumers need a broader range of competitive products and regulation to facilitate home charging – I mention this because home charging is far more important for an early adoption stage in comparison to public charging. However, on the other hand, it’s important to say India has been doing a great job pushing for widespread adoption of electrification in two- and three-wheelers.
Baburajan Kizhakedath