Tesla opened the doors in his first exhibition hall in India this week and among the first visitors was Vishal Gondal-a long-standing Tesla and Elon Musk Loyalist who displayed a model 3 in April 2016, just hours after the live bookings. But despite his appearance on the first day, Gondal says he is not planning to buy a Tesla now.
“I felt a little undervalued,” said Gondal, founder and chief executive of the Fitness-Tech Goqii start, after visiting Maiden Tesla’s exhibition space in the Bandra-Kurla complex.
In the best part of a decade, Gondal took hope for Tesla’s debut in India. But his excitement ran when he had to chase the company for a refund in 2023 – sending multiple emails only to get the $ 1,000 booking fee.
“Trying to get the money back was a problem,” he told TechCrunch. “And the joke was. If we had invested this money in the Tesla ipo stock. We would have made more money.”
Gondal is one of the first supporters of Tesla in India-someone to carry out a vehicle long before there were guarantees. But nine years later, it seems that many of these first believers do not celebrate the launch and have decided not Go with Tesla, at least in his debut.
These supporters never got Model 3, for which they paid the booking end shortly after Musk promised to start the car in the country. And some, like Gondal, were waiting and tried hard for years to get the refund, while some took it in May, just a few months before Tesla’s official debut.
“It is frustrating to see Tesla get so much, I mean, our government and the processes and the red carpet are tough, but it is hilarious that even Starlink has received approval in a shorter period,” said Varun Krishnan, who manages the Tech Blog Fonearena from Chennai.
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Tesla did not invite these faithful to visit the Mubai exhibition area, nor did they give them an information on the launch.
The 6,000 -square -foot showroom Tesla is located at the Mallity Mallity Mall, near the first Apple store in Chora. However, Gondal said that the Tesla store was nowhere close to that of the Apple Store launch.
“When Apple started the showroom at the same place, the buzz that Apple was able to create over Buzz that Tesla was able to create, there is a world of difference,” he said.
Gondal went to the Tesla exhibition area at Audi E-Tron, which he had bought last year after waiting for a long time for model 3.
“This felt like the coldest launch,” said Amit Bhavani, founder of Tech Blog Phoneradar, who also emerged model 3 in 2016.
Bhavani finally got the $ 1,000 return after Tesla’s criticism in a video Released on YouTube in 2020.
The video received comments from dozens of people who had also kept model 3 in India and were waiting for a refund, he said.
“Then I felt that all love for Tesla became a real hatred for Tesla,” he told TechCrunch.
“The least tesla could do was to email all the people who kept the car earlier and said,” Guys, we will have a special event for you, “Gondal said.” These people really came out of their way, and even though let’s say it’s not a big deal. “
Others, such as Kawaljit Singh Bedi, said they had no regrets to support Tesla, though they received the refund shortly before the launch this year. However, they also do not try to buy a Tesla soon.
“After all these years, I waited, I’m not in a hurry to buy it now and become the first to have it, why is the point? I waited nine years? Can I wait nine years and six months,” said Singh, co -founder and CTO of Frammer AI.
“Most of those who had put their timely vote of confidence are frustrated, including, I know, Vishal and Vijay [Shekhar Sharma of Paytm]”Krishnan said.” People like Vishal or Vijay are taken with a lot of power. So if they buy something, there would be 100 people who go with their word. ”
Sharma, founder and chief executive of Indian Fintech Giant Paytm, reiterated comments from other first supporters, telling TechCrunch that he would not go with Tesla and preferred to wait for a larger car portfolio.
“It may be a little late,” he said. “There are so many other options with honor mathematics that suits India.”
Delaying years in Tesla-Meza launch by not being invited to opening the exhibition space-has left some of the brand’s first Indian faithful to feel frustrated, said Arun Bhatt, its founder Tesla Club Indiawho also emerged a model 3 in 2016
“You paid something and wait with sad 10 years. And then from blue. They just tell you. We’ll cancel it and come back. Then what’s going on – 10 years waiting for something. We’ll be given a preferential treatment?” he questioned. “There is zero communication about this. Thus, eight out of 10 booking holders are frustrated.”
Bhatt started the club with another student at Tesla University and the University of Delhi, Nikhil Chaudhary, in 2019 as an informal team for people interested in EV Carmaker. However, he told TechCrunch that due to the delay in Tesla’s launch in the country, the club has changed slowly by a Tesla awareness club to an EV and Club Clean Energyware.
Without clarity for subsequent sales and local convertible network
One of the concerns that many Tesla supporters have is the lack of clarity of how Tesla will create the country’s turbocharger network and handle after -sale care. The company has announced that it will create eight charging stations, equally distributed throughout Delhi and Bombay, before launching its traditions in the third quarter. However, it is not clear whether they are sufficient to provide adequate support to Tesla drivers in these two cities. In addition, there are no announcements about how Tesla plans to handle the service after selling her cars to India.
“Having grown up in nine years, I have also taken more prudent in the process of buying my vehicle, I am more worried about practical things than the Tesla brand label, which I fell in love with 10 years ago,” said Fonearena’s Krishnan.
“There is no real enthusiasm to own the first car, knowing that there is no turbocharger network,” said Kawaljit of Frammer AI.
Musk’s political interest and even conflict with Trump offs some Indian drivers
In recent months, Musk’s public face has was subjected to displacement – by a visionary entrepreneur who runs a lot of companies to a polarized political figure in the US influenced Tesla’s stock and businesses Not only in America but also in basic international markets. India does not seem to be an exception.
“After all elections and politics, and whatever is happening, I don’t see Elon in the same colors as I used to,” Fonearena’s Krishnan said.
Kunal Khattar, an investor focusing on India and the founder of VC’s Advantege founders, reiterated Krishnan’s feeling, saying that Tesla has lost “a little shine” because of many factors-including his policy of participation with Musk and his trumpet.
“People thought Tesla saves the world. He saves the climate, and that and that, there is no longer there,” he said.
Khattar was invited to Tesla’s launch in Mumbai. Just like Gondal of Goqii and others, he also described it as “sluggish” and “not as a standard vehicle launch”.
The playground 1%
Tesla started the Y model in India, starting at 59.89,000 (about $ 68,000). Some compare India’s pricing with that of the Y model in the US, which starts at $ 44,990 (₹ 38.71,000). However, the car industry imports the car from China-contrary to build it locally in the country-something that the industry is usually referred to as a fully constructed (CBU). This adds to invoices that Tesla is going to pay for some time until she decides to create a local factory, so customers will have to pay an excessive price.
In India, the Premium section, which starts at ₹ 35,00,000 (about $ 40,700) and amounts to ₹ 1,00,00,000 (about $ 116,200), includes only 1% of total car sales in India, about 50,000 vehicles. However, in this 1%, electric cars have almost a 10% share so far, per Puneet Gupta, Director, S&P Global Mobility.
“With the entry of Tesla, and if Tesla really starts to build in India. Maybe two years below the line, there is no doubt that he will make a strong case for all these OEMs [original equipment manufacturers]Including BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi, to make a vehicle for our Indian customer for the first time, “he said. The problem is that India has never been able to convince these OEMs that they can really make a product based on India and will have sufficient volumes. “
Overall, electric cars sales in India represented only 2.5% of the total market in 2024, by opposite. But it was “almost negligible” in 2016, when Tesla initially announced its entrance. That was why people showed great interest in Tesla then.
“These days, anyone can get a beautiful, amazing, super powerful electric vehicle in India.
India’s carmaker Tata Motors has dominated the country’s electric car market in recent years, though others – including China’s Motor Motor, which recently signed a joint venture with the Indian Group JSW Group – is starting to gain ground.
The Premium sector remains specialized in the country, although the growing number of high network people has led to an increase of 66 % annually on the sales of premium EVs in the first five months of 2025, said Abhik Mukherjee, a car analyst on the automotive industry.
BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Land Rover, Volvo and Hyundai and Kia models sit in the section where Tesla brought the Y model to the country.
“Today’s Tesla price point is unlikely to cause any extent to the brands operating within this price range,” Mukherjee said.
However, Tesla’s debut is likely to draw some attention to the customer in electric cars in a market where the two wheels dominate the EV area.
“People will at least put the ECs in their entirety. Tesla will sell many cars?
