Tesla launched a new six-seater version of the Model Y in India on Wednesday, putting a third-row variant into a market where the electric carmaker has struggled to gain traction. The Model Y L is priced at about Rs 61.99 lakh and offers a range of between 500 km and 681 km.
The new launch gives Tesla a larger vehicle for Indian buyers, but it also lands with a steep price tag in a country where the average electric vehicle costs far less. reported that Tesla had sold just 350 Model Y vehicles in India since the model debuted last year, a weak start for a company that began looking to break into the market last year and received just over 600 orders between mid-July and February, according to media reports.
Price has been the central obstacle. Tesla’s vehicles are expensive in India because imported cars face nearly 100% tariffs, a barrier that has kept the Model Y well above the reach of most buyers. Officials said in February that India would cut tariffs on high-end American cars to 30% from as high as 110%, but the country made no concessions on electric vehicles in the interim trade framework announced that month.
That policy gap matters because India has said it wants electric vehicles to rise from 5% to 30% of the country’s automotive sector by 2030. For Tesla, the choice has been to ship cars rather than build them locally after scrapping plans for an India factory and opting instead to bring vehicles from China. The decision leaves the company exposed to the same import duties that have already slowed its entry.
The tension is plain: Tesla is trying to widen its appeal in India with a bigger, more expensive Model Y, even as the market itself remains heavily shaped by tariffs and a government that has said the company would need to build in India if it wants unfettered access. The launch answers one question — whether Tesla will keep pushing into India — but it also makes the harder one impossible to miss: whether the company can sell enough vehicles there at these prices to justify the effort.