Tesla has registered just 993 vehicles in India since it started deliveries there in September 2025, according to registration data compiled by Indian EV publication ElecTree.
But 294 of those came in September 2026 alone. That’s a record month for Tesla in India, and it comes right after the automaker cut prices and launched the six-seat Model Y L.
Tesla needed nine months to sell 428 cars
Tesla launched in India in July 2025 with a Model Y priced at roughly $70,000, almost twice what it cost in the US at the time. We said the price didn’t make sense.
The numbers agreed. Tesla registered 69 cars in September 2025, its first month of deliveries, and it didn’t beat that figure for the next eight months. It finished 2025 with 226 registrations and added only 202 more between January and May 2026, per ElecTree’s count. February was the low point at 29 cars.
By January, Tesla was already discounting unsold Model Ys in India from its first batch of imports. In May, India’s Minister of Heavy Industries confirmed that Tesla won’t build a factory in India, which means every car it sells there keeps coming in as an import, with the duties that go with it.
A note on the “first year” math. The data covers 13 calendar months, September 2025 through September 2026. Count only the first 12 and Tesla is at 699 cars.
These are also registrations, not deliveries. Tesla doesn’t report sales by country, so registrations are the closest thing we get.
A price cut and the Model Y L changed the trend
Tesla made two moves this spring.
On April 22, it launched the Model Y L in India at ₹61.99 lakh (about $65,000), with deliveries starting in June. The longer six-seater came in cheaper than the five-seat Model Y Long Range, which was listed at ₹67.89 lakh (about $71,000) and has since been dropped from the lineup.
Then in late May, Tesla cut the entry-level Model Y by ₹9 lakh, from ₹59.89 lakh to ₹50.89 lakh. That’s a 15% cut, and it brings the starting price to about $53,000.
Registrations took off from there:
Month (2026)Model Y LEntry Model YTesla totalJune201138July8526116August8232117September23856294Source: ElecTree registration data. Totals include the last Model Y Long Range units.
That’s 565 registrations in four months, more than the 428 Tesla managed in its first nine.
The Model Y L is doing most of the work. It has 425 registrations in four months, which is exactly what the entry-level Model Y has put up in 13. In September, the six-seater accounted for 81% of Tesla’s registrations in India.
The Model Y L launched in the US in July at $61,990. So before taxes and fees, Indian buyers are paying within about $3,000 of the US price for an imported car, in a country with import duties of up to 110%. A year ago, Tesla was asking them to pay almost double.
It’s still a lot more than the roughly $47,000 the Model Y L launched at in China, where Tesla builds it.
Tesla has also added locations. It started with showrooms in Mumbai, Delhi, and Gurugram, and ElecTree reports that it has since opened in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Noida.
Tesla is still a rounding error in India
India registered 35,995 electric cars in September, up 98% from a year ago, according to Vahan registration data reported by Autocar Professional. Tata alone did 14,769. Tesla’s record month works out to 0.8% of India’s EV market.
Tesla looks better in the luxury segment. The same data has BMW at 502 electric cars in September, Tesla at 291, and Mercedes-Benz at 125.
So Tesla is now the second-biggest luxury EV brand in India with about 30% of the segment, up from 69 cars in the same month last year.
The comparison that stings is VinFast. The Vietnamese automaker registered its first cars in India the same month Tesla did. But it assembles them at a plant in Tamil Nadu, and it prices its SUVs between ₹18 lakh and ₹23 lakh (about $19,000 to $24,000).
VinFast registered 2,963 cars in India in September. That’s three times what Tesla has done in 13 months, in a single month.
Different price class, obviously. But it shows what building locally gets you in India.
Electrek’s Take
In January, we wrote that you can’t sell a $40,000 car for $70,000 and expect volume. Tesla tried it anyway and got 40 to 60 cars a month.
Then it cut the entry price by 15%, brought in a bigger car for less than the old top trim, and now it’s at almost 300 a month.
It must be a bit confusing for the Indian consumer.
It’s also hard to tell how much price changes affect volume compared to expansions in other cities.
Either way, for now, it looks like Tesla is not giving up on the Indian market despite the lackluster performance.
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