‘Launch Tesla cars in India ASAP’, YouTuber requests; Elon Musk cites 2 reasons for ‘delay’

New Delhi: The launch of Tesla cars in India are much anticipated, with every now and then speculative talks of luxury SUVs making its India debut. Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Saturday set the record straight and underlined two reasons why the company hasn’t launched its car in India yet.

A YouTuber Madan Gowri today requested Tesla CEO to launch cars here, saying, ““Dear Elon Musk, please launch Tesla cars in India,” followed by an emoji.

Replying to the Twitter user Madan Gowri, Musk replied that his company wanted to launch cars in India, however, the country’s import duties are ‘dissuading’ him from rolling the flock of cars.

“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,” Musk said in the reply to the tweet.

Dear @elonmusk please launch Tesla cars in India ASAP! ? pic.twitter.com/ohFieRzdGW

— Madan Gowri (@madan3) July 23, 2021

According to reports, the company has also written to Niti Aayog to consider slashing taxes on imports of fully assembled electric cars to 40%.

Musk tweeted further that he was hopeful of some relief in sight.

It may be noted that high import taxes for some industries were imposed under the incumbent Modi government to promote local manufacturing and give a fillip to associated MSMEs.

“But we are hopeful that there will be at least a temporary tariff relief for electric vehicles. That would be much appreciated,” Musk said in another tweet.

But we are hopeful that there will be at least a temporary tariff relief for electric vehicles. That would be much appreciated.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2021

Currently, India imposes 100 per cent import duty on fully imported cars with cost, Insurance and Freight value more than $ 40,000 and 60% on those costing less than the amount.