Elon Musk Says Very High Import Duty Delaying Tesla India Launch
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hinted that the company may open up a factory in India to sell locally assembled Tesla electric vehicles. The billionaire entrepreneur is hoping that the imported Tesla cars receive a good response in the Indian market. Musk said that the import duty in India is the highest in the world for a large country.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hinted that the company may open up a factory in India to sell locally assembled Tesla electric vehicles.
Reuters
But for that plan to materialise, the billionaire entrepreneur is hoping that the imported Tesla cars receive a good response in the Indian market.
If Tesla is able to succeed with imported vehicles, then a factory in India is quite likely.
¡ª Elon Musk (@elonmusk) https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1418656085267865602?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 23, 2021
The US electric carmaker is planning to enter the Indian market and to that effect, the company had registered its Indian subsidiary in Bengaluru earlier in January. Tesla has also been reportedly looking to hire executives in India. In October 2020, Musk had promised "next year for sure," while replying to a query on Tesla's India plans. India¡¯s Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari had echoed his statement in December last year and said that Tesla would also be looking at setting up a manufacturing unit.
Same issue, different year
But the Technoking of Tesla has now pointed out an issue that is holding the immediate launch of the electric vehicle in India. While replying to a tweet by a Youtuber who requested him to launch Tesla ASAP in India, Elon Musk said that the import duty in India is the highest in the world for a large country.
We want to do so, but import duties are the highest in the world by far of any large country!
¡ª Elon Musk (@elonmusk) https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1418641920595791872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 23, 2021
Moreover, clean energy vehicles are treated the same as diesel or petrol, which does not seem entirely consistent with the climate goals of India.
He further argued that the electric vehicle manufacturers willing to import their cars don¡¯t get additional benefits from the Indian government, bringing them at par with the diesel and petrol vehicles. He added that a ¡°temporary tariff relief... would be much appreciated.¡±
But we are hopeful that there will be at least a temporary tariff relief for electric vehicles. That would be much appreciated.
¡ª Elon Musk (@elonmusk) https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1418651049469124614?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 23, 2021
Notably, Musk has been harping about the same argument for a couple of years now. In 2019, he tweeted that Indian import duties would make Tesla cars ¡°unaffordable¡± for Indians.
I¡¯m told import duties are extremely high (up to 100%), even for electric cars. This would make our cars unaffordable.
¡ª Elon Musk (@elonmusk) https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1156971534981799936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 1, 2019
A delivery record for Tesla
Tesla scored record car deliveries in the second quarter of 2021. The US electric carmaker delivered 201,250 vehicles during the period, overtaking the previous record set in January, and registering a 151 per cent increase over last year, which was eclipsed by COVID-19 lockdown.
Not only that, Tesla also earned $1.1 billion in net income during the same period ¡ª a whopping tenfold increase year-over-year, it announced during its Q2 earnings call. This is also the first time that the company has surpassed $1 billion in a quarter. Overall, revenue grew 98 per cent from this time last year thanks in large part to Tesla's increased deliveries.
Tesla
Semi truck delayed again
Responding to questions from institutional and retail investors, Musk said that a ¡°big struggle this quarter¡± was to procure enough modules that control the airbags and seatbelts in Tesla vehicles. The lack of supply limited the company¡¯s production both in Fremont, California, and Shanghai.
Meanwhile, in its shareholder deck, Tesla informed that it has delayed the launch of the Semi truck program until 2022.
¡°In order for Cybertruck and Semi to scale to volume that's meaningful for customer deliveries, we've got to solve the chip shortage by working with our suppliers,¡± Musk responded to a query.
He also said that many fans ask why Tesla doesn¡¯t just make its own chips to avoid shortages. ¡°Well, OK, that would take us, even moving like lightning, 12 to 18 months. So it's not like you can just whip up a chip fab,¡± he added.
Elon Musk fires shots at Apple
During the conference call about Tesla's second-quarter results, billionaire CEO Elon Musk took a pair of jabs at Apple, calling out the tech giant over its App Store policy as well as its use of cobalt in iPhone and Mac batteries.
¡°Tesla uses no cobalt in the iron phosphate packs and almost none in the nickel-based chemistries. Apple uses I think almost 100% cobalt in their batteries in cellphones and laptops,¡± he said in a reply to a question from an institutional investor.
Reuters
¡°On a weighted average basis, we might use 2% cobalt compared to, say, Apple's 100% cobalt. Anyway, it's really just not a pack. We expect to basically have zero cobalt in the future,¡± he added.
Musk was also referring to the iPhone-maker when he said that Tesla does not intend to create a "walled garden" to kill competition. ¡°I think we want to emphasize that our goal is to support the advent of sustainable energy. It is not to create a walled garden and use that to bludgeon our competitors which is used by some companies,¡± he said and then muttered ¡®Apple¡¯ after faking a cough, CNBC reported.
What do you think, will Elon Musk finally launch Tesla in India later this year in 2021? For the latest Elon Musk and Tesla news, and other developments from the world of tech and EVs, keep visiting Indiatimes.com.
