Tesla has just received approval for three more trims of its electric vehicles in India –bringing the total to seven versions approved in the country.
However, there’s still no clear timeline for a launch in the market.
India has the biggest auto market that Tesla has yet to enter.
For years, Elon Musk said that Tesla’s launch in India was imminent, but strong import tariffs have made it difficult.
Nonetheless, the automaker has had some indications of preparing for a launch lately.
Earlier this year, Tesla officially incorporated an Indian company in Bengaluru, the capital of India’s southern Karnataka state.
This summer, Indian government officials said that they are considering Tesla’s proposal to greatly reduce import duties for electric cars, which has been the main hurdle for the company to enter the market.
The government has maintained high import duties on EVs to encourage local production, but so far it has mainly resulted in preventing automakers to import popular EVs produced outside the country, including in China.
Tesla has expressed interest in building a factory in the country, but as it has done in every other market, the automaker prefers to first test the waters with imported vehicles.
More recently, Tesla vehicles have been spotted being tested on Indian roads.
Indian media are now reporting that Tesla has received homologation for 7 “models” in the country (via The Hindu Business Line):
“As per information shared by the Centre-controlled Vahan Sewa, Tesla India Motors and Energy, the India subsidiary of Tesla Inc, has received a homologation certificate for three more models, making it a total of seven models to receive approval.”
Considering Tesla doesn’t have 7 different models for sale, they are talking about different trims and variants of its existing Model 3, Model Y, Model S, and Model X, but the media reports don’t confirm which ones.
While those approvals could be a good sign of Tesla preparing to launch in the country, the company has been quite clear that it wants a waiver on car import duties for electric vehicles before launching in the market and there’s been no update on that front.
But Tesla might know something that the public doesn’t because there have been other indications lately that the automaker is preparing to launch in the country.
For example, some Supercharger stations have been spotted entering the market:
They haven’t been deployed yet, but Tesla building Supercharger stations and service centers are the two main indications of a new market launch.
But we have yet to hear about exact locations for either.
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