Tesla In Talks With Government Of India To Exempt Import Duty

Clearly he was, which is why he's probably asked the folks at Tesla to resume talks with the Indian government. Just yesterday, Musk was asked yet again of its plans to come to India and he replied to the tweet saying that the folks from Tesla are "In discussions with the government of India requesting temporary relief on import penalties/restrictions until a local factory is built"
 

In discussions with the government of India requesting temporary relief on import penalties/restrictions until a local factory is built

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 14, 2017

Ofcourse for Tesla has to price its models competitively in India and the only way to bring prices down is manufacture models locally. Tesla has no manufacturing base in India and so till it builds one, all cars coming to India will come as CBUs (Completely Built Units). Under the current tax bracket, CBUs attract 100-120% import duty and this means the cost of the cars will go up, making it very expensive in India.

However, there is a silver linking here. The Government of India has already announced its plans of phasing out petrol and diesel cars by 2030 and this is very ambitious, as also difficult. By 2020, the government wants to ensure that 6 million Indians buy electric/hybrid cars and that's quite a task at hand too.

For the time being though, only Mahindra makes electric cars in India and is the only one that exports them too. Very recently, Mahindra invited Musk to India, saying that he would love some competition here. With India poised to become the third-largest automotive market in the world, Tesla would surely want a piece of the pie especially when it does not have to deal with much competition.We wait to find hear more from Musk or even Tesla on its plans for India