In April 2016, Tesla opened a pre-booking site for India, but it still does not sell electric cars in the country, which is the third largest car market in the world.
One of the first to pay for a car reservation was Vishal Gondall, CEO of the medical startup GoQii and a longtime fan of Elon Musk. At the time, the service cost $1000 and the man did not spare the money, although there was no clarity on whether Tesla would start delivering cars to India. After 7 years of waiting in vain, Gondall finally decided to cancel the reservation — and that was the beginning of another challenge. For half a year, the man sent letters to Tesla and received no response — the refund eventually came, but the customer did not hear any apologies.
According to Rest of the World, Vishal Gondall is not the only one who has found himself in a similar situation. Some say that they became disillusioned with Tesla and eventually switched to other electric car manufacturers because of the futile wait, but the most loyal fans continue to wait for their «treasure».
«It would be strange to say I would do it again,» says Amit Bhavani, founder of the tech blog PhoneRadar, who booked a Model 3 in 2016. «If I see a showroom in Hyderabad with a proper service center, then maybe. But I won’t trust Musk anymore».
Bhavani also did not receive his money immediately — his YouTube video about canceling his Tesla order helped speed things up. He also described his problems in several posts on X
«Someone just put me in front of the queue and refunded my money to keep me quiet», he said. «I found out that ordinary people who canceled their reservations were not refunded, only influencers or people with a blue tick at the time».
In 2016, Tesla’s decision to open Model 3 pre-bookings in India was met with great excitement. In a few hours, several well-known tech and business leaders in the country booked a car and announced it on social media. Since then, Musk has been announcing new dates for the company’s entry into India: summer 2017, 2019, and «if possible» in mid-2023.
Tesla even registered an Indian subsidiary in Bengaluru in January 2021, but there is still no official channel to buy a Tesla car directly in the country.
When Musk announced his plan to visit India in early 2024, many expected Tesla to finally start talking about production in the country again. However, only two days before the planned trip, Musk canceled it and a week later went to neighboring China.
«People who made a reservation about 8 years ago — are not the ones who are worried about the amount of $1000», — said Yugal Joshi, partner at the international research company Everest Group.
Joshi added that delays in investments (rumored to be in car production and a gigafactory) and Musk’s recent cancellation of a trip to India, combined with its «proximity to China» complicate the situation in an already uncertain environment.
Until a few years ago, Tesla’s website showed a cancel button when a potential customer logged in, but that option has now been «removed by» and replaced with an email ID, says Nikila Chaudhary, co-founder of the Tesla Club India online community. The community has more than 18,600 subscribers on X and, among other things, helps people cancel reservations for Tesla electric cars. Sometimes, you have to hunt down the automaker’s employees on LinkedIn to get the reservation canceled.
Varun Krishnan, founder of the tech blog FoneArena, claims to be the first person to book a Model 3 in India. He told Rest of the World that he received a $1000 refund in January 2022 after several months of communication with Tesla employees in Hong Kong and California.
Tesla’s inflation-adjusted refund should be $1300 in 2024, but the company is refunding $1000 each.
«2016 was a completely different era in terms of the maturity of electric vehicles. Apart from Tesla, we didn’t know anyone».
According to Yugal Joshi of Everest Group, the Indian obsession with Tesla is in line with the global trend. He said that the «company was ahead of its peers with minimalist design, features, technology adoption, and focus on the driving experience».
«A Tesla owner can look cool and stand out. People with money can spend a fortune on these two aspects alone».
Based on the materials Rest of World