Elon Musk’s Tesla has priced its Model Y at around ₹61 lakh in India—its highest price point among major global markets—as it opened its first showroom in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Deliveries are expected to begin in the October-December quarter. Tesla is entering India’s crowded roads targeting the premium electric vehicle (EV) niche, which accounts for just 4 percent of overall car sales in the world’s third-largest auto market.
Rather than competing with domestic EV players such as Tata Motors and Mahindra, Tesla is positioning itself against German luxury brands like BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
In India, the rear-wheel drive Model Y is priced at ₹60 lakh, while the long-range rear-wheel drive version costs ₹68 lakh. In comparison, the starting price for the Model Y in the United States is $44,990, 263,500 yuan ($36,700) in China, and €45,970 ($53,700) in Germany.
Despite import duties and levies totalling roughly 70 percent, Tesla has opted to import vehicles for the Indian market, as it grapples with excess capacity at global factories and softening sales worldwide.
On Tuesday, police guarded Tesla’s inaugural showroom in India as media and dignitaries gathered outside the Mumbai office complex. The chief minister of Maharashtra attended the launch.
Inside the showroom, designed in Tesla’s trademark minimalist style, a Model Y sat under black and grey covers, partially visible through the glass. Access was tightly controlled, with no visible crowd of fans or curious onlookers.
Tesla’s website lists the Model Y in Mumbai at an on-road price of ₹61 lakh, with a booking amount of ₹22,220. The company is also offering its Full Self-Driving (FSD) capability as an optional extra for ₹6,00,000, with future updates promised to enable functionality with minimal driver input.
While the current system still requires full driver supervision and is not fully autonomous, Tesla says it will gradually advance through over-the-air software updates.
