India Cuts Import Taxes on EVs in Boost For Tesla's Entry Plans (techcrunch.com) 41
India will lower import taxes on certain electric vehicles for companies committing to invest at least $500 million and setting up a local manufacturing facility within three years, a policy shift that could potentially bolster Tesla's plans to enter the South Asian market. From a report: Companies must invest a minimum of $500 million in the country and will have three years to establish local manufacturing for EVs with at least 25% of components sourced domestically, according to a government press release on Friday. Firms meeting these requirements will be allowed to import 8,000 EVs a year at a reduced import duty of 15% on cars costing $35,000 and above. India currently levies a tax of 70% to 100% on imported cars depending on their value.
The policy change is likely going to pave the way for Tesla to enter India, as the Elon Musk-led company has been in talks with the government to lower import duties on its electric cars for years. The move also aligns with India's goal to boost the adoption of EVs and reduce its dependence on oil imports, with the country setting a target of achieving 30% electric car sales by 2030.
The policy change is likely going to pave the way for Tesla to enter India, as the Elon Musk-led company has been in talks with the government to lower import duties on its electric cars for years. The move also aligns with India's goal to boost the adoption of EVs and reduce its dependence on oil imports, with the country setting a target of achieving 30% electric car sales by 2030.
Great, but they need cheaper models too (Score:4, Interesting)
Obviously it's good that India is moving towards EVs, but Teslas aren't exactly affordable in the West. What they need are the super cheap Eastern European and Chinese models. Dacia has one coming out with a decent size battery for around 15k Euro, and obviously it meets all EU safety standards. It's very basic, the base model doesn't even have DC rapid charging, but a lot of people don't need it.
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And, since Tesla, Rivian and Kia/Hyundai ** seem to be about the only car companies who are able (or willing) to make a decent EV, I'm glad it's one of the three.
(** I realize the newer eTrons and the Taycan are pretty good, so some credit is due to VW/Audi/Porsche, but the ID4 is a POS, so I'll stand by my assertion)
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You're forgetting BYD.
It seems that building affordable decent EVs generally takes new car companies...
As for Tesla, they can be the same thing in India that they are in China - the equivalent of the BMW, Audi, and Mercedes. For the rich 0.1% crowd.
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I have to admit that I did forget about BYD. They're not as widely available, though, so that's why they didn't come to mind.
Also forgot Tata, Mahindra and Hyundai (Score:2)
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Nah, those cars are for the 0.01%, I'd think.
Re: Great, but they need cheaper models too (Score:2)
In a country of over 1.4B, thatâ(TM)s still 140,000!
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Well, that's kind of my point. 140k is totally enough to sell more Maibaches, Lamborghinis, and Rolls Royce vehicles than are sold in their home countries.
I mean, a quick look says that Rolls-Royce only sells ~6k cars/year. Everywhere. 90% are exported. Biggest importers for them are the USA and China.
We might need to add another zero or three if we're just looking at Rolls-Royce.
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I think "willing" is the real thing here. Any company capable of building an ICE vehicle is more than capable of building a BEV, it's just still a matter of whos got the batteries. It's about batteries, batteries, batteries. Batteries are the limit on production volumes and batteries are the limit on lowering the cost of vehichles. Everything else is either the same or simpler and cheaper than building a contained explosion box to move the car.
The ID4 is a POS because VW is more than capable of building
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Right now there is a surplus of batteries and battery factories are cutting back production.
Battery prices are predicted to drop by 50% this year.
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That's good, that's what we want to see. Vehicle production is going to lag that indicator but if that outlook holds and continues over the next few years we will start to see more and cheaper options probably in the 2025+ model years.
Right now it seems like the market is a valley because it's just glutted with $50k+ options, you got your pick of options in that price range.
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Tesla sold the Model 3 at $35 for a few weeks, and not on their website. Then it went up and has never come back down to that level. The promised $25k car never materialized, they went for the more expensive (and lucrative) Model Y instead.
India has Tata motors which owns Jaguar, among others. They seem to have fallen way behind on EV tech though. Perhaps it didn't filter down from the luxury cars like they had hoped.
What is wrong with the ID4? It seems okay by VW standards. PSG cars seem to be getting good
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Rampant software issues. Failure to charge, [consumerreports.org] and complete hang of the dash indicators [reddit.com]. And, complete loss of power (while driving), which resulted in a recall [theverge.com]. That's fucking cataclysmic.
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As I said, by VW standards... That sort of thing is normal in their cars, the software is crap on the fossil ones too.
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So, let's correct the record here.
Model 3 was sold for $35k on the website for several weeks. It was sold off the website for nearly a year. There was no question Tesla wanted to discourage its sales - their profit on it was basically nil - but then again, "basically nil profit" on EVs is what most automakers get on *all* their EVs.
The "$25k Tesla" was not a concept from before the Model Y. It was first mentioned as a "we could do that in a few years" in an interview in 2020, the same year that the Mode
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** Initially *production* was supposed to start...
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According to this the $35k Model 3 was only ever available by phone: https://www.capitalone.com/car... [capitalone.com]
Do you have some evidence that it was on the website, like an archived order page, or even a screenshot?
It was even worse outside the US. Initial expectation was about £27k, which is $35k plus 20% tax. It launched at over 40k. We got pretty badly shafted, and those early cars were Tesla's proprietary connector too, not CCS like the later ones.
It was just the usual Musk thing of over-promising an
Re: Great, but they need cheaper models too (Score:2)
The US $35K was probably excluding tax too, so sounds like the same price point. Our government forcibly takes more from us here in the UK than in than US, but people seem to forget this when price comparing with the US and mistakenly blame the supplier instead. You canâ(TM)t complain about prices here when people keep voting for politicians who want to take more of your money from you.
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One example among many [topspeed.com].
Europe adds VAT (usually ~24% or so, but depends on on the country**) atop a 10% import tariff on cars from the US, atop shipping etc. It has nothing to do with Musk, and everything to do with the EU. Don't like it? Lobby your government.
** US cars - and US products in general - are priced without taxes, as sales taxes are highly varied by jurisdiction (and generally low). In the US, tax is added on after the list price; it's not included in the l
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They are supposedly designing a less expensive ($25K) model.
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Tesla sold the Model 3 at $35 for a few weeks, and not on their website.
Dammit, I missed that - why wasn't it bigger news? I'm not a Musk fan, but $35 for a car? I'd have bought one for each person in my entire extended family!!
Re: Great, but they need cheaper models too (Score:2)
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Most Indians don't have a car at all. The key is to ensure that when their income increases, electric cars are similarly priced to fossil cars, but cheaper to run and cleaner, so people pick them.
We have seen that work quite well in China, where a lot of people's first cars are EVs.
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Not "most" Indians.
India has over a billion people. A good number of them are doing quite well financially and can afford even expensive cars.
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It's fairly simple. The only companies with sustainable (aka sufficiently low COGS) EV manufacturing businesses are Tesla, and Chinese companies. While India's relationship with the US isn't always super-warm, it's generally considerably cooler in its relationship to China.
Bringing in foreign manufacturers helps kickstart the industry. China did this exact thing with Tesla. And it's worked out extremely well for them. It helps you build greater economies of scale, develop local talent, build up a suppli
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I think it would be unwise to assume that other manufacturer's EV production is not sustainable. Of course the initial costs of developing new platforms are high, but that was true for Tesla and the Chinese manufacturers. Many other manufacturer's EVs reached profitability some time ago.
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Tesla is the only automaker confirmed to make a profit on EVs. (BYD may be making a profit but it's not clear... ?China)
Every other automaker is losing significant $$ on every car they make. They won't make a profit until they can get their volume up. It's not clear that they will be able to sell enough of their substandard EVs to increase volume to the point where they are profitable. Right now they are relying on profits from ICE and hybrid cars but people have stopped buying those and they have too much
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India is not happy with China for a long while now. Probably due to the shared border where they still end up fighting every once a while. And possibily also cos of China's belt and road thing investing heavily in Pakistan.
But as I understand from the article summary anyone who is willing to invest 500 million gets the import tax cut. So presumably BYD and other China companies can do the same. But interesting to note that the tax reduction is only on 8000 EVs per year. That probably shows how unprepared th
forty rods to the hogshead (Score:2)
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Full self driving in India should be much easier to implement, at least.
All pointless (Score:2)
India will never be able to install the charging infrastructure to make EV's practical.
Ever tried getting a landline installed in India?
Corruption (Score:2)
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Fuck India (Score:2)
0.4% of Tesla sales (Score:2)
Tesla made almost 2 million cars in the past year, 8000 is 0.4% of 2 million.
I don't this this is significant for Tesla it may matter more for manufacturers that make fewer EVs but probably not at they are unlikely to commit to invest $500 million.
What about Chinese companies??? (Score:2)