Tesla Model 3 may be coming to India – but at hefty price

Electric car-maker Tesla may launch one of its models in India between June and September 2017, Chief Executive Officer of Tesla Motors Elon Musk said on Tuesday.

The cheapest model of the car – which needs no petrol or diesel – currently costs $35,000 (approximately Rs 23 lakh) but with heavy import duties, it will be much more expensive.

The Model 3, which is touted as the vehicle of the future, can go from 0-60 mph (approximately 0-100 kmph) in six seconds. Tesla is reportedly preparing to start building the much-awaited model this month (See: Tesla pulls all stops to start test-building Model 3 on 20 Feb). However, the electric car is only as green as the energy grid it is plugged into, Scroll.in points out. And with 60 per cent of the grid in India running on electricity generated from coal, that's not very clean energy. But it's better than carbon-based fuels.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently visited the Tesla offices in Palo Alto. Musk had said that he and Modi talked about how batteries and solar panels could be the future of electricity generation for India, particularly in rural areas, and how India could move directly to renewable forms of energy.