Tesla on the search for showrooms in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru

Tesla Inc, which is bound to set foot into the Indian market with a big bang, is looking for locations to open showrooms in three Indian cities – New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

The world’s most expensive EV maker has hired an executive – Manuj Khurana, a former executive of Invest India, to lead its lobbying and business efforts ahead of its planned entry into India. This is being regarded as the first major hire to lead its policy and business development efforts in the country.

In Januray, Tesla had registered a local company in India. According to Reuters, it is expected to import and sell the Model 3 sedan by as early as mid-2021, seeking to target rich customers in a niche market. Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, in October 2020, had tweeted that the company will enter India in 2021 “for sure”.

Sources said that the automaker, by market capitalization, is looking for commercial properties as large as 20,000-30,000 square feet each to open showrooms and service centres in the national capital New Delhi, financial hub Mumbai in the west and the tech city Bengaluru in the south. CBRE Group Inc, a global property consultant, has been hired by Tesla for the showroom searches and it has been surveying places for several weeks. It’s focusing on locations which will give the company easier access to affluent customers.

Some luxury car showrooms in upmarket areas of metro cities are typically between 8,000-10,000 sq feet, but most showrooms are far smaller in India where high-end real estate space is usually in short supply, and property prices in New Delhi and Mumbai are among the highest in the world.

A source said that if you look at Tesla’s showrooms globally, they are like experience centres. “It would look at replicating that with some modifications for the Indian market.”

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India is regarded as a potential market for electric vehicles, and it recorded just 5,000 EV sales out of the total 2.4 million cars sold in 2020. Analysts believe India’s rising number of affluent consumers makes it a market the automaker can’t ignore as the government increases its focus on promoting clean cars.