Nearly three months after registering in India, Tesla is now looking for lucrative places to locate its first three showrooms in the country, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter. As of now, India’s national capital Delhi, financial capital Mumbai and the country's answer to Silicon Valley, Bengaluru, are being canvassed for appropriate showroom sites for Tesla.
The EV-maker has hired international property consultant CBRE Group to look for places that will give Tesla’s target market of wealthy Indians living in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru the chance to buy the fancy cars. Commercial properties as large as 10,000 to 30,000 square feet are being sought in the three major hubs to establish Tesla showrooms as well as service centres.
To most Indians, Tesla cars would be outlandishly expensive. The cheapest car for 2021 is the Model 3 sedan that is $36,990 (about INR 2.7 million) which Musk plans to bring to the Indian market by somewhere in the middle of 2021.
Last year in October, Musk confirmed on Twitter that Tesla cars will be available in India in 2021 "for sure".
Founded in 2003, Tesla is world’s most valuable automobile company with a market capitalisation of more than $795 billion. Toyota and Volkswagen are in second and third position respectively.
In January, when the EV company selected Bengaluru for its R&D centre, BS Yediyurappa, the state chief of Karnataka, welcomed Musk, the world’s richest man, to India’s tech hub and wished him all the best.