Prashant Ruia, CEO of Essar, is India’s first Tesla owner

Prashant Ruia, the CEO of business conglomerate Essar, is the first Tesla electric car owner in India. The Tesla Model X electric SUV that was imported into India last week belongs to him. However, the car is not officially on sale in India. Mr. Ruia has imported the Model X through the private import route. The car, which costs around 120,000 US dollars or around 75 lakhs in the USA, costs about 2 crores in India if imported privately. Yes, one needs to pay a big price for exclusivity.

The Model X is the only SUV in Tesla’s line-up. It’s more of a crossover than an SUV since it’s basically a high-riding car with 7 seats. It is the fastest electric SUV in the world. It uses 2 electric motors – one driving the front wheels and the other driving the rear wheels.

The combined power and torque outputs of these motors is around 750 Bhp and 967 Nm. This gives the Model X some really insane acceleration. 0-100 Kph takes 4.8 seconds. Top speed is 250 Kph. Tesla also offers a ‘Ludicrous’ mode on the Model X P90D variant, which speeds up the car even more, with 0-100 Kph taking just 3.2 seconds.

The car is not just about performance – it also has a lot of futuristic technologies. For example, it has Auto-pilot, a semi autonomous driving system that can virtually drive the car by itself though a driver needs to be present in the driver’s seat. Also, if you are in a country that has Tesla operating, you don’t need to go to a dealership to order the car. You can do it online. Basically, Tesla is changing the way people buy and interact with cars. This is the reason why the first Tesla car in India is such a big deal. Tesla still has plans of officially launching a relatively affordable electric car in India – the Model 3. However, the exact timeline of launch has not been revealed yet.

Via Team-BHP