India’s Tesla fans wait for their ride to show up

In 2016, Tesla opened its pre-booking portal in India, allowing people to put down 66,237 rupees ($1,000) as a deposit for a Tesla Model 3. Eight years later, those who threw their cash in the ring are still waiting for their ride – or asking for their money back. Many aren’t getting it: Rest of World reports that it took six months of emails for one pre-booker to get a refund. Tesla doesn’t sell its cars in India – the world’s third largest automobile market – in part because of India’s eye-watering import taxes on electric vehicles (between 70-100 per cent). It may finally get wheels on Indian tarmac following New Delhi’s recent announcement of reduced EV import taxes in exchange for investment (following extensive Tesla lobbying). But people aren’t rushing to put a date in their diaries. Musk recently called off a planned trip to India, citing “heavy Tesla obligations”. He went to China a week later.