Tesla Signals India Entry With 13 Job Openings In Mumbai

Tesla Inc. has started hiring in India to enter the world's third-largest automotive market as early as this year, according to people aware of the matter.

The electric carmaker, led by the world’s richest person Elon Musk, has listed 13 job openings for India on its website, including those relating to sales and services in Mumbai. The first Tesla India store is likely to come up in the financial capital, one of the people cited above said. The US company will bring its entire model line-up—except the Cybertruck—to India, but a low-cost model isn't in the works yet, a second person said.

To be sure, Tesla’s India entry has been in the works for quite some time now but Musk has stayed away citing high import duty. That, however, has been reduced to 70% from 110% in the recently presented Union Budget—a pre-emptive measure against US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs.

Separately, the Indian government has laid out a red carpet of sorts with its EV policy that’s aimed at attracting foreign electric car makers to make and sell in India. It wasn’t immediately clear if Tesla is looking to make in India just yet.

It’s worth mentioning here that Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Musk in Washington DC during his latest US visit.

“We discussed various issues, including those he (Musk) is passionate about such as space, mobility, technology and innovation,” Modi said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Feb. 13. “I talked about India’s efforts towards reform and furthering ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’.”  

An India entry can also be a shot in the arm for Tesla that is battling slow sales in the US. The company posted its first annual drop in EV sales in over a decade. While India’s EV market is still at a nascent stage as compared to China’s, it is growing at 20% annually.

“Tesla is set to disrupt whichever segment it enters India with,” Gaurav Vangaal, associate director - light vehicle production forecasting at S&P Global, told NDTV Profit.

While he didn’t hazard a guess at which price points Tesla’s cars will sit at, he said anything higher than Rs 50 lakh will eat into the market share of the Germans (Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW), and anything close to Rs 25-35 lakh would be worrisome for Indians (Tata Motors and Mahindra).

“Tesla would ideally take a top-down approach to its India play—enter with completely built-up units and then follow it up with completely knocked-down kits,” Vangaal said. And if and when it comes, it’ll bring the full package: vertically stacked manufacturing, and the complete battery and charging ecosystem.

Additionally, Tesla enjoys a brand equity bar none, Vangaal said.

“So, while Indians may take time to warm up to a Vinfast or BYD, Tesla is already a well-known brand. Aspirational even.”