Elon Musk Reacts To The First Business Tycoon To Own A Tesla In India
Tesla may not have had the flashiest of beginnings in the Indian market. Its India operations began in July this year, with the launch of the Model Y. The EV faced sheer criticism for being priced steeply. India’s high import duties were to blame for this. Deliveries started in September and INOX Group managing Siddharth Jain was the first business tycoon to take the EV home in India. He even shared a picture of him standing next to the car on X (previously Twitter). Tesla’s co-founder and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk has now reacted to this post, and the response has now gone viral.
Jain shared the picture of his newly-bought EV on the platform with a caption saying ‘ This one’s for you Elon Musk. I am beyond thrilled to receive India Inc’s 1st Tesla! I have been waiting for this precious moment ever since I visited the Tesla Fremont factory in 2017. Dreams do come true!’. He even mentioned the official handles of Musk and Tesla in the post.
In a move that surprised netizens, Musk replied to the post with a one-word response. ‘Congrats,’ wrote the CEO. The response went viral in no time and racked up over five million views in just hours. Excited, netizens came up with comments like ‘Finally a post from Elon about Tesla in India’.
Someone even asked the CEO about the company’s India sales- ‘How is the Indian Market doing for you?’ reads the comment. Another user asked Musk to set up a factory in India and make the cars more affordable.
Tesla opened its first experience centre in India, in BKC Mumbai. It handed over a model Y to Maharashtra Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik on September 4, 2025, at the same facility. The minister had booked his Model Y on the day when the carmaker started accepting orders.
The Indian market is highly price-sensitive. Its steep price tag and premium positioning in the market gave the Model Y a rough start here. A Bloomberg report in September revealed that the American EV giant could only manage to get 600 bookings so far.
This is very small for a company like Tesla, which generates massive anticipation and excitement with most global launches. It is in fact, quite infamous for amassing a huge number of initial orders and then posting long waiting spans for those products. Its fate in India, however, has been lacklustre.
In most global markets, Tesla isn’t really a luxury brand. The Model Y, in particular, is an entry-level EV. In the Indian market, it is placed squarely against luxury EVs with its ex-showroom price of Rs 59.89 lakh. Additional speccing and colour selection will cost extra, and the on-road price can even touch Rs 77.97 lakh for a fully loaded variant.
With these prices, it has to battle the likes of BMW EVs here. There is clearly a disparity between what the Model Y represents in global markets and the aura it has in India, creating a value gap. This should have contributed to its dull reception as well.
India’s revised GST regime brings in more pressure. Under it, electric vehicles pricier than 40 lakh Indian rupees are taxed higher. This means that the Model Y may get more expensive in the time ahead. This could potentially make life more difficult for Tesla in India.