With global sales slumping, Tesla tries to break into a new market
CNN
Tesla has started selling cars in India, the world’s most populous country – but at a hefty price tag.
Tesla has started selling cars in India, the world’s most populous country – but at a hefty price tag. Tesla, which is facing slumping sales and complications from CEO Elon Musk’s political entanglements, opened its first showroom in Mumbai on Tuesday. The company needs to boost its sales, and pushing into a new market with untapped buyers could help. The Tesla web site shows the price of a Model Y at 61,07,190 rupees, or about $71,000. However, the same car is listed on the company’s site for US buyers at about $45,000 before applying a $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles (EV), which would lower the cost to $37,500. (That tax credit is due to expire at the end of September.) Tesla has had a long-stated desire to sell in India, but Indian tariffs on foreign autos, which can more than double the cost of a vehicle there, have been the barrier, according to the World Trade Organization and Tesla executives. “We’ve been working on getting into India. India is a very hot market,” said Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja in a call with investors in April. “It will be a great market to enter because India has a big middle class.” But he said the tariffs “create a little bit of tension, which we’re trying to work around.”

Paramount has upped the ante in its hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, announcing Monday that Larry Ellison will personally guarantee the tens of billions of dollars he is putting up to bankroll the transaction. The Ellisons will also let shareholders peer into the finances of their family trust.












