We reported earlier that American electric giant, Tesla will enter India towards the end of this year. The company has already been registered in India as Tesla India Motors And Energy Private Limited with its headquarter setup in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It is expected that Tesla will open showrooms and service centers in three major cities – New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
The Tesla Model 3 will be the brand’s first electric model in the Indian market. In fact, a blue coloured Model 3 has been spotted testing in Pune. It is expected to be one of the three Model 3 units that Tesla imported for testing purposes in the country. The Tesla Model 3 electric sedan is rumoured to be launched by the end of 2021 or early 2022.
Initially, Tesla cars will be imported to India via CBU route from the company’s Gigafactory in Shanghai, China. In fact, Nitin Gadkari said that India is ready to give incentives to ensure Tesla Inc’s cost of producing an electric vehicle would be less than in China. However, Tesla will have to make a commitment of making its electric vehicles in India.
The Tesla Model 3 electric sedan comes with a 60kW hour lithium-ion battery pack. It is offered in 4 variants – Standard Range (RWD – rear-wheel-drive), Standard Range Plus (RWD), Long Range (AWD – all-wheel-drive) and Long Range Performance (AWD). The sedan has an electric range between 381km – 580km (as per WLTP) and 0-97kmph time between 3.2 to 5.6 seconds. The performance variant is claimed to achieve a top speed of 261kmph.
The electric sedan comes with Tesla’s Autopilot self-driving function as standard. The Tesla Model 3 electric sedan will arrive as a CBU model in India, and is likely to cost around Rs 55 lakh to Rs 60 lakh.
Source – Car Crazy India
