Tesla registered just 993 cars in its first 13 months selling in India

September 2026 was the best month Tesla has had in India: 294 registrations, according to the registration tally behind an Electrek analysis. Even so, the running total since the first customer deliveries in September 2025 stands at 993 cars, a number that covers 13 calendar months and not 12. Count only the first twelve months and the figure falls to 699.

The totals are registrations, not deliveries, and Tesla does not report sales by country, so every India number comes from the government’s Vahan vehicle-registration portal, as compiled by third parties, rather than from the company.

The 993 registrations and the 13-month window

Electrek’s Oct. 6 report draws on data compiled by ElecTree and counts 993 Tesla registrations from September 2025 through September 2026. The first month, September 2025, produced 69, and Tesla did not beat that figure for the next eight months. The 2025 total was 226, and January through May 2026 added 202, bringing the first nine months to 428. February 2026 was the low point at 29.

Other tallies of the same Vahan portal data land close by but not on the same number. Drive Tesla Canada, relaying a compilation by the unofficial Tesla Club India, put September 2025 through September 2026 at 990, with 37 more in early October. Autocar India counted 1,017 Model Y units through Oct. 2, a window that includes about 30 cars registered on Oct. 1 and 2.

The Model Y L and the May price cut

Tesla launched in India in July 2025 with a Model Y priced at roughly $70,000, about twice its American price at the time, Electrek reports. Registrations stayed between roughly 30 and 70 a month through June 2026, which Electrek ties to the original pricing, and in January 2026 Tesla was already discounting unsold Model Ys from its first imports. Two changes broke the pattern. In late May Tesla cut the entry Model Y by 9 lakh rupees, or 15 percent, from 59.89 lakh to 50.89 lakh rupees, about $53,000. The six-seat Model Y L, launched on April 22 at 61.99 lakh rupees with deliveries from June, then gave buyers a larger car for less than the old top trim.

Monthly registrations in Electrek’s table climbed from 38 in June to 116 in July, 117 in August and 294 in September. Of the September total, 238 were the Model Y L and 56 the entry Model Y, which put the Model Y L at 81 percent of the month. The four months from June to September add up to 565 registrations, more than the 428 in Tesla’s first nine months combined.

Autocar India lists the entry Model Y at 50.89 lakh rupees ex-showroom as of Oct. 5, against 55.71 lakh for the Hyundai Ioniq 5, 65.98 lakh for the Kia EV6 and 49.4 to 55.9 lakh for the BYD Sealion 7, which puts Tesla’s cheapest car inside the range of established rivals. Electrek’s own caveat is that price and geography changed together. Tesla opened showrooms beyond Mumbai, Delhi and Gurugram to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Noida, so the analysis cannot cleanly separate the effect of the cut from the effect of new cities.

An import-only business in a 35,995-car EV market

In May 2026, India’s heavy industries minister, H. D. Kumaraswamy, said Tesla had formally told authorities it would not build a factory in the country. Every Tesla sold there is therefore an import from Giga Shanghai, with duties on foreign-built EVs reaching as high as 110 percent. A proposed policy would have cut that to 15 percent for EVs above $35,000 in exchange for at least $500 million of local manufacturing, and Tesla and New Delhi could not agree on terms.

Against the rest of the market, September’s 294 cars are a sliver. India registered 35,995 electric cars that month, up 98 percent from a year earlier, with Tata alone at 14,769, per the Vahan figures Electrek cites from Autocar Professional. Tesla’s share works out to about 0.8 percent. VinFast, which also began Indian registrations in September 2025 and assembles in Tamil Nadu, registered 2,963 cars in September 2026, roughly three times Tesla’s 13-month total.

Tesla looks stronger in the luxury tier. Autocar Professional’s September ranking has BMW first with 502 cars, Tesla second with 291 and Mercedes-Benz third with 125, giving Tesla about 30 percent of luxury EV registrations. Electrek plans to use the fourth quarter to see whether roughly 300 registrations a month holds once the Model Y L’s launch demand is absorbed, and the October count already circulating, 37 cars in the first days of the month per Tesla Club India, will be the first test of that pace.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

More from Morning Overview