India is considering an EV tariff deal with Tesla, details emerge
According to reporting from the Financial Times, Tesla and India’s long courtship ritual could finally be making real progress. Negotiations appear to be on a path that would make it possible for Tesla to sell its existing cars in the country while it works on plans for a local manufacturing facility.
According to the report, the Indian government is considering sharply reducing its tariffs on imported electric vehicles — among the highest in the world — for a period of five years. Presently, the tariff in India assessed on any foreign EV costing under approximately $40,000 is 70%, with EVs over $40,000 subject to a 100% tariff. That means a brand like Tesla’s cars would cost double their MSRP, a cost that would be passed on to the customer — making them a nonstarter for virtually anyone.
Under the proposed scheme, India would lower the EV tariff to 15% for five years, though it’s unclear if the tariff would be higher or lower depending on vehicle MSRP, or flat across vehicles of all prices. The reporting suggests that Tesla must commit to building a manufacturing facility in the country to be eligible for the tariff reduction. Elon Musk had raised hopes of a deal like this coming to fruition with comments made in passing earlier this year, alongside reporting that Tesla sought to build a factory for a $24,000 vehicle in the country. Today’s news appears to confirm earlier reports on the subject back in May.
This Financial Times report is the first time we’ve had a sense of exactly how a Tesla-India deal would be architected. A senior Indian commerce minister is traveling to San Francisco for the APEC summit this week, and one of FT’s sources suggest this person could meet Elon Musk while there to discuss the deal. Granted, none of this is official — it’s all hearsay, seemingly from sources close to the Indian government.
Notably, FT’s report says the deal offered to Tesla would be open to all carmakers, but it’s unclear what exactly would be required for eligibility under the reduced tariff scheme. Minimum production commitments could conceivably be a component.
Electrek’s take
Given the back-and-forth between Tesla and India over the past few years, it’s tough to take this report with anything but a massive grain of salt. But it’s worth discussing, especially given the comparative reputability of the reporting source here.
India is a country with absolutely tiny EV share — electric cars make up under 2.5% of all auto sales in the country. And of those EVs, the overwhelming majority are cheap sub-$10,000 microcars, the likes of which I could never see Tesla producing. However, India is a truly massive country of over 1.4 billion people with a rapidly rising standard of living, and even a tiny share of a vast market could meaningfully impact Tesla’s global sales.
It’s hard to imagine what charging infrastructure would be like living with a Tesla in India, a country with highly inconsistent infrastructure development and a power grid that can become highly unstable, especially during the hot summer months. But as India continues to develop and modernize, it seems inevitable such difficulties will ease over time.
Whether this tariff deal actually ends up going anywhere is a whole other question. But this is the greatest level of detail we’ve seen for a potential agreement between the Indian government and outside automakers to make EV sales in the country a viable prospect. Tesla’s motivations here are clear: It wishes to begin selling cars in the country before it develops local manufacturing capacity to capitalize on existing demand for EVs. Given difficult economic conditions globally, the Indian government may also be feeling pressure to get high-profile manufacturing commitments at home, and more willing to budge than it has in the past. Until the ink is dry, though, nothing here is certain.
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![Day 1 of the Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix 2025 [Gallery]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/54629423281_6315c46dff_k.jpg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
Today was the official start of racing at the Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix 2025! There was a tremendous energy (and heat) on the ground at NCM Motorsports Park as nearly a dozen teams took to the track. Currently, as of writing, Stanford is ranked #1 in the SOV (Single-Occupant Vehicle) class with 68 registered laps. However, the fastest lap so far belongs to UC Berkeley, which clocked a 4:45 on the 3.15-mile track. That’s an average speed of just under 40 mph on nothing but solar energy. Not bad!
In the MOV (Multi-Occupant Vehicle) class, Polytechnique Montréal is narrowly ahead of Appalachian State by just 4 laps. At last year’s formula sun race, Polytechnique Montréal took first place overall in this class, and the team hopes to repeat that success. It’s still too early for prediction though, and anything can happen between now and the final day of racing on Saturday.
Congrats to the teams that made it on track today. We look forward to seeing even more out there tomorrow. In the meantime, here are some shots from today via the event’s wonderful photographer Cora Kennedy.
Stay tuned for more!
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The numbers are in and they are all bad for Tesla fans – the company sold just 5,000 Cybertruck models in Q4 of 2025, and built some 30% more “other” vehicles than it delivered. It just gets worse and worse, on today’s tension-building episode of Quick Charge!
We’ve also got day 1 coverage of the 2025 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix, reports that the Tesla Optimus program is in chaos after its chief engineer jumps ship, and a look ahead at the fresh new Hyundai IONIQ 2 set to bow early next year, thanks to some battery specs from the Kia EV2.
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Tesla has launched its new Oasis Supercharger, the long-promised EV charging station of the future, with a solar farm and off-grid batteries.
Early in the deployment of the Supercharger network, Tesla promised to add solar arrays and batteries to the Supercharger stations, and CEO Elon Musk even said that most stations would be able to operate off-grid.
While Tesla did add solar and batteries to a few stations, the vast majority of them don’t have their own power system or have only minimal solar canopies.
Back in 2016, I asked Musk about this, and he said that it would now happen as Tesla had the “pieces now in place” with Supercharger V3, Powerpack V2, and SolarCity:
All of these pieces have been in place for years, and Tesla has now discontinued the Powerpack in favor of the Megapack. The Supercharger network is also transitioning to V4 stations.
Yet, solar and battery deployment haven’t accelerated much in the decade since Musk made that comment, but it is finally happening.
Last year, Tesla announced a new project called ‘Oasis’, which consists of a new model Supercharger station with a solar farm and battery storage enabling off-grid operations in Lost Hills, California.
Tesla has now unveiled the project and turned on most of the Supercharger stalls:
The project consists of 168 chargers, with half of them currently operational, making it one of the largest Supercharger stations in the world. However, that’s not even the most notable aspect of it.
The station is equipped with 11 MW of ground-mounted solar panels and canopies, spanning 30 acres of land, and 10 Tesla Megapacks with a total energy storage capacity of 39 MWh.
It can be operated off-grid, which is the case right now, according to Tesla.
With off-grid operations, Tesla was about to bring 84 stalls online just in time for the Fourth of July travel weekend. The rest of the stalls and a lounge are going to open later this year.
Electrek’s Take
This is awesome. A bit late, but awesome. This is what charging stations should be like: fully powered by renewable energy.
Unfortunately, it will be much harder to open those stations in the future due to legislation that Trump and the Republican Party have just passed, which removes incentives for solar and energy storage, adds taxes on them, and removes incentives to build batteries – all things that have helped Tesla considerably over the last few years.
The US is likely going to have a few tough years for EV adoption and renewable energy deployment.
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