Tesla reportedly close to starting sales in India
Tesla is nearly ready to start selling its electric vehicles in India, according to Bloomberg News, after years of flirting with the idea. The company is about to open its first showroom in Mumbai and could start deliveries as early as August, according to the report.
A few hours after Bloomberg published its report, Tesla created an account specifically for its Indian operation on CEO Elon Musk's social media platform X. The account has one post so far: an illustration of the Mumbai skyline with the caption 'Coming soon.'
Tesla has been pushing into a number of new markets as it exhausts existing ones with an aging lineup of EVs. Earlier this year, the company started selling EVs in the oil-rich nation of Saudi Arabia.
India could be particularly challenging for a number of reasons, including price. Tesla will have to export already-built vehicles to the country, and so they will be subject to a 70% import duty, according to Reuters. Tesla once held talks with Indian government officials and came close to executing an agreement to build a factory there. But the company never went through with the deal.
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