A senior Indian government official ruled out any possibility of granting Tesla company-specific incentives. This statement comes a day after Elon Musk tweeted out about India’s high import duties on Tesla vehicles and the possibility of a factory in the country if they are able to first import vehicles.
We want to do so, but import duties are the highest in the world by far of any large country!
Moreover, clean energy vehicles are treated the same as diesel or petrol, which does not seem entirely consistent with the climate goals of India.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2021
This is not the first time an American company attempted to move the needle of the Indian government. Apple pitched for market access for its products and special concessions to start manufacturing in India a few years ago. India didn’t provide Apple with any company-specific incentives, and the company makes four models of the iPhone in India via contract manufacturing.
However, the Indian government officials noted that sectoral incentives should favour domestic manufactures. They further confirmed that the government was not in favour of lowering import duties for foreign vehicles. As they note,” The commerce department has consistently suggested higher import duties for finished products rather than components to support Make in India….” reports MoneyControl.
There is no word on how Tesla will handle the 60% import duty on vehicles costing less than $40,000 and 100% on cars costing more than $40,000. Musk noted that for India to produce automobiles, Tesla would need to import vehicles to start.
