Tesla opened the doors to the first Indian exhibition space this week, and among the first visitors were Vishal Gondal-long-time Tesla and Elon Musk Loyalist, who pre-booked a model in April 3, 2016, just an hour after booking. But despite the fact that Gondal appears on the first day, he says he has no intention of buying Tesla now.
“I felt a little low,” said Gondal, the founder and CEO of Fitness-Tech Startup Goqii, while visiting Maiden’s Tesla exhibition room in the Mumbai Bandra Kurla complex.
Gondal liked Tesla’s debut in India for a better part over the decade. But his excitement was born when he had to chase the company return in 2023 – sending several emails just to get his $ 1,000 booking fee.
“Getting money back was a problem,” he told Techcrunch. “And it was a joke if we had invested money in Tesla’s IPO shares, we would have earned more money.”
Gondal is one of the earliest supporters of Tesla in India-Joku, who advance the vehicle long before any guarantee was. But nine years later it looks like it, No Go with Tesla, at least in its debut.
These supporters never got a model of 3 year olds, to whom they paid the booking fee shortly after Musk promised to launch the car on the ground. And some, like Gondal, even waited for and tried hard to get years back when some received it in May, just a couple of months before Tesla’s formal debut.
“It’s frustrating to see that Tesla will take so long. I mean that our government and our process and red carpet are tough, but it is fun that even Starlink has been approved for a shorter period,” said Varun Krishnan, who leads the technology blog Fonearena in Chenna, and is also one of Tesla’s early support in India.
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Tesla did not invite these loyal to visit its Mumbai exhibition space and did not give them an update on launch.
6000 square feet The Tesla exhibition space is located in the Maker Maxity Mall, near Apple’s first store in the country. Nonetheless, Gondal said the Tesla store was not nearly the same as the Apple Store laws.
“When Apple launched their exhibition space in the same place, Buzz, which Apple was able to create compared to the Buzz Tesla, was able to create, there was a world,” he said.
Gondal went to the Tesla exhibition mode at the Audi E-tron, which he had bought the previous year while waiting for a long model 3.
“This felt like the coldest start,” said Amit Bhawani, founder of Tech Blog Phoneraadar, who also confirmed Model 3 in 2016.
Bhawani finally received a $ 1,000 refund by criticizing Tesla a video was released on YouTube in 2020.
The video received comments from dozens of people who had also booked a model in 3 India and waited for a refund, he said.
“Then I felt that the whole love of Tesla had real anger in Tesla,” he told Techcrunch.
“The least Tesla could have” those people really went out of their way, and even though it is said that it was not a big amount, it said we supported Tesla. “
Some others, such as Kawaljit Singh Bedi, said they unfortunately had no support for Tesla, even though they received a return just before they started this year. Nevertheless, they also do not want to buy Tesla soon.
“After all these years, I have been waiting, I’m not hurrying to buy it now and I became the first one that is because what’s the point? I was waiting for nine years? I can wait nine years and six months more,” said Bed, Frammer AI’s founder and CTO.
“Most of those who had given their early voting vote are disappointed, including I know, Vishal and Vijay (Paytmin Shekhar Sharma),” Krishnan said. “People, like Vishal or Vijay, are taken a lot in authority. So if they buy something, they would say 100 people.”
Sharma, the founder and CEO of India’s Fintech giant Paytm, repeated comments from other early supporters and told Techcrunch that he would not go with Tesla and prefer to expect a larger car fleet.
“It may be a little too late,” he said. “There are so many other options whose price value mathematics is better suited to India.”
A year-long delay in Tesla’s launch, and that it has not been invited to open the exhibition space-left some of the earliest Indian loyal to the brand, said Aun Bhatt, founder Arun Bhatt Tesla Club Indiawho also booked model 3 in 2016
“You paid for something and waited passionately for 10 years, and then from blue, they just tell you that we cancel it and return, then what happens – 10 years waiting for something to give us a benefit treatment?” He asked. “There’s no communication in it. So eight out of ten of the reservation holders are frustrated.”
Bhatt started the club’s second Tesla enthusiast and Nikhil Chaudhary, a student at Delhi University in 2019 as an unofficial group for people who are interested in EV car manufacturer. However, he told Techcrunch that due to the delay in the launch of Tesla’s country, the club has slowly changed from Tesla Awareness Club to EV and a clean energy consciousness club.
No clarity in post -sales and local super charger network
One of the concerns that many Tesla-Varians have is a lack of clarity on how Tesla puts the charger network on the ground and deals with post-sales treatment. The company announced that it would set up eight charging stations, which are divided into Delhi and Mumbai, on an equal footing, before starting their delivery in the third quarter. However, it is unclear whether these two cities are sufficient enough for Tesla drivers. In addition, there are no announcements on how Tesla intends to process a post -sales service in India.
“I have expired over nine years, I have also got more cautious about my vehicle buying process. I am more concerned about the practical things than just the Tesla brand tag I fell in love with 10 years ago,” said Krishna from Fonearena.
“There is no real excitement about owning the first car, knowing that there is no existing,” Frammer AI’s Bedi said.
Musk’s political interest and even a collision with Trump have turned off some Indian drivers
In recent months, Musk’s public person has altered – from a vision entrepreneur leading to several companies polarizing political characters in the United States, this change is influenced Tesla’s shares and business Not only in America, even in the most important international market. India does not seem to be an exception.
“After all elections and politics, and what happens, I don’t see Elon in the same colors as I used to be,” Fonearena Krishnan said.
Kunal Khattar, India’s EV-centric investor and founder of the VC company Advantedge founders, repeated Krishnan’s opinion by saying that Tesla has lost his “gloss” for several factors, from Musk’s political participation, his harmonization with Trump.
“People thought that Tesla would save the world, it saves the climate, and this and that, it no longer exists,” he said.
Khattar was invited to Tesla’s launch in Mumbai. Just like Goqii and other gondal, he also described it as “low” and “not like a typical vehicle trigger”.
1% playground
Tesla has launched a model in Y India, starting with $ 59,89,000 (about $ 68,000). Some compare India’s pricing with the US model Y’s pricing, which starts at $ 44,990 ($ 38,71,000). However, the car manufacturer brings a car from China to make it locally on the ground-something that industry usually refers to fully built (CBU). This adds to the tariffs that Tesla has been set to pay for some time until it decides to set up a local factory and thus have to pay the unreasonable price.
In India, the Premium segment, which starts at $ 35.00,000 (about $ 40,700) and rises to $ 1.00,000 (about $ 116,200), is only 1% of the total sale of Indian cars, about 50,000 vehicles. However, 1%of electric cars so far have nearly 10%of the red GUPTA, Director, S&P Global Mobility.
“When Tesla is coming in, and if Tesla really starts making in India, maybe two years down, there is no doubt that it will make a strong case for all these OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), including BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi, to make a vehicle to our Indian customer for the first time.” “The problem is that India has never been able to convince these OEM manufacturers that they can really make an Indian center product and have enough quantities.”
All in all, the sale of Indian electric cars accounted for only 2.5% of the total market in 2024 per counterpart. But it was “almost minor” in 2016, when Tesla originally announced his enrollment. For this reason, people showed a lot of interest in Tesla.
“Nowadays, everyone can get a beautiful, incredible, very powerful electric vehicle in India. So Tesla is not worth” wow “except for 5-10 minutes, people should just ask it to look inside,” Bhawani of Poneraadar said.
In recent years, Tata Motors, an Indian car, has dominated the country’s electric car market, although others – including China’s MG Motor, which recently signed a joint venture with the Indian JSW group – are starting to get the country.
The premium segment is still in a narrow country, although the increasing number of high networks has led to the sale of the premium EVs 66 % during the first month of 2025, Automotive and IoT research analyst Abhik Mukherjee told Techcrunch.
BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Land Rover, Volvo and Select models Hyundaii and Kia are sitting in a segment where Tesla has brought the model Y to the ground.
“Tesla’s current price point is unlikely to cause any dentist for brands that operate in that price range,” Mukherjee said.
Nonetheless, Tesla’s debut is likely to pay some attention to the customer’s electric cars in the market where two-wheelers control EV space.
“People at least put EVs on their discretion series. Do Tesla sell a lot of cars? I don’t think so … Does Tesla add to other EV brands? I think so,” said Khattar Advantedge founders.
Tesla did not respond to comment requests.
