Elon Musk's Tesla has made a major move in India with the launch of its biggest sales and service center.
Located in Gurugram, the new hub brings showroom, charging facilities and after-sales support together under one roof.
This move comes despite the company currently struggling with slow EV sales.
So far, Tesla has only sold a little over 100 electric cars in India since it officially entered the market in July, as per BBC.
Meanwhile, Tesla’s rivals such as BMW, BYD and Mercedes Benz have been selling much better, helped by festive season demand and lower taxes on their premium electric vehicles.
Some insiders told the outlet that the company is now working on improving the EV environment in India such as charging infrastructure, services, and support to help increase sales in the future.
Experts believe that high taxes and the slow shift toward electric vehicles in India are bigest obstacles for the EV market.
For Tesla in particular, the high purchase price of its cars makes it even harder to attract buyers.
However, Tesla India head Sharad Agarwal said during the launch of the Gurugram centre that customers could save up to two million rupees in four years through lower fuel and maintenance costs.
"Most of the [maintenance] service is done remotely through software updates, which reduces cost of ownership. And cost of home charging is one tenth of petrol prices,"Mr Agarwal said.
EVs accounts for less than 3% of all passenger car sales in India while charging infrastructure is limited, with only about 25,000 charging stations across the country.
