Three of the senior executives in the Indian offices of American electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla have left.
Since the country policy head Manoj Khurana left in June, the company has lost three members from the original 12-member team.
Senior Executives Leave, Troubled Waters For Tesla India
These resignations are of the head of charging Nishant, legal head Nitika Chhabra, and sales executive Ankit Kesarwani.
These departures by senior executives signal a waning interest in the Indian market. After Prashanth Menon heading the Indian market took a position outside the country, the HR head Chithra Thomas was promoted to additional director of the company.
With the hopes of launching its cars within six months, the company was incorporated in Bengaluru on January 8, 2021.
High Import Duties & Increased Price
However, it is the government’s stance on import duties for electric vehicles (EVs) that has blown a sucker punch to Tesla. Speaking of the duty on EVs priced under $40,000 (~Rs 35.85 lakh), 60% duty is levied, the duty is 100% if price is greater than $40,000.
Now, if you take the most affordable Model 3, then due to such taxes it would cost around 60 lakh to 70 lakh, while premium models such as Model S or Model X would be above Rs 1.5 crore.
“Currently, the company’s India unit is in its skeletal form,” one of the people cited above said.
Tesla failed in its attempt to lobby the Indian government to reduce import duties.
Elon Musk, had also expressed on Twitter that the company plans to sell in India first, prior to setting up a manufacturing plant in the country.
Now any person would easily make that these cars would then in turn mean that since there not a huge customer base, there won’t be enough volumes for Tesla to justify building a plant in the country at present.
Given the cars are made in country, the Narendra Modi-led government has been bullish on India’s transition to EVs.
The Modi government has already announced initiatives including the Rs 10,000-crore FAME II (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid and) Electric Vehicles in India) subsidy scheme, for adoption of electric vehicles.
Ten companies, including a Reliance Industries subsidiary and Ola Electric, have applied for the government’s Rs 18,100-crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for advanced chemistry cells (ACC).
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