I just don’t get the Tesla hype in india?

With so many people excited about Tesla cars coming to india, question has to be asked if there is any chance of it seeing meaningful sales figures in India.

Let’s examine what I think are USPs of tesla in the west (which I think is dwindling quickly even there).

1) Supercharger network - proprietary network with relatively high spread and density is probably the main reason people may prefer Tesla over other electric cars in the west, especially USA. I seriously doubt Tesla will invest so much to build a decent n/w in india and then it becomes a chicken-egg problem.

This might have been ok if other factors helped, but I just don’t see it.

2) FSD - This is overhyped even in US which the system is designed for. I just don’t see it working well in india given our infrastructure, non existent road ethics and a govt which is openly hostile to self driving tech.

3) Cool factor - does it still exist? I say it’s been a while they’ve done something innovative (disaster that is cybertruck). Not to mention recent surge in public outrage over Musk’s politics.

People were OK to accept the cheap interiors for high costs because of the cool factor, but things have levelled up.

What’s tesla without all that? Sub par built cars with good range and software, how long before the chinese beat them in that? If anything, they already have. If not for first mover advantage which helped them build a good charger network and protectionist policies, tesla would struggle to provide any value to US customers the cars were designed for.

Not to forget Apple-esque service model with exorbitant pricing that doesn’t make sense - something that the indian public is particularly sensitive to.

Electric cars are still a niche in india and whatever demand that exists will be covered by Indian brands (hopefully) and more likely by the chinese.

Tesla’s may see a very small subset of rich buy them out of curiosity or perceived status, but will probably never make a meaningful dent in indian market especially with no plans of manufacturing in india.

More likely scenario is Chinese effortlessly capturing the market due to reduced import taxes on EVs that Indian govt is now planning to pass.