The Tesla brand has come up as one of the most exciting and interesting electric car brands around the world. While the Tesla brand is officially available in many countries around the world, the brand’s entry in India was deferred due to the tax structures in the country. However, there are many Indian buyers who just could not stay away from the most-talked-about electric vehicles. After a handful of Tesla Model X SUVs were imported privately in India, a brand-new Model S has landed in India.
The Model S is an extremely good looking sedan that gets a notchback or liftback rear. It was spotted in brilliant blue colour on a flatbed. The Model S is yet to be seen making merry on the roads, which means that the vehicle is yet to reach its intended owner and is still in transit. The vehicle was first spotted a couple of weeks back in Mumbai, Maharashtra and it has been spotted in the same area again.
The Model S is available in two variants – Long Range and Performance. In the performance variant, the customer can also choose to go for the optional Ludicrous Mode, which ensures that you hit 0-100 km/h in just 2.4 seconds, a staggering 0.6 seconds quicker than the without-Ludicrous Mode Performance variant that can hit the same speed in 3 seconds, which is also quite quick. As per the post on Automobile Ardent, this is the P100D model, which is the Performance variant but we are not sure if the owner has opted for the Ludicrous Mode in the vehicle. When the Model S was launched, the top-end version became the quickest production car in the world. A feat that it still holds.
The base price of the Tesla Model S starts at $85000 or around Rs 59 lakhs. The performance variant is priced at $99000 which roughly translates to Rs 68 lakhs and if the owner adds the Ludicrous Mode, an extra Rs 14 lakh is charged. The high-performance Ludicrious mode is only available with the Performance variant and not with the Long Range variant of the vehicle. Getting the vehicle to India can be a big task as the owner has to pay more than the original price of the vehicle as an import tax to the government, which makes the price of the vehicle extremely high. However, importing such vehicles ensure the exclusivity on the roads.
India has around 5 known Tesla imports till now. Four of them are Tesla Model X SUVs and this is the first Model S to be imported to the country. The Model S Long Range can do 540 km on a full single charge while the Performance variant can run up to 506 km in a full single charge. Both the variants have the same top-speed of 249 km/h.
Elon Musk earlier tweeted that the Tesla vehicles will be officially launched in the Indian market in 2019 or 2020. However, the selling price of the vehicles will remain high as they will be imported as Completely Built Units (CBUs) and will not be assembled or manufactured in India, that lowers the taxes.
