If there’s one thing that you can trust with Elon Musk , it’s that every single new product or feature he talks about inevitably gets delayed . That fully autonomous cross-country road trip that he promised by the end of 2017 ? Still hasn’t happened. Outside of the new Roadster , though, Tesla does eventually build the cars it promises.
Unless you live in India and are still waiting on that Model 3 you reserved. As ABC News reports , Indian reservation holders are largely giving up hope that it will ever happen. Back in 2016, Tesla began taking reservations for the Model 3 in India.
Production wouldn’t begin for another year, but if Tesla was taking deposits, it was only a matter of time before he started fulfilling India’s orders, right? That’s what Vishal Gondal, the founder and CEO of a health-tech startup, thought when he sent Tesla $1,000. At the time, he reportedly didn’t know how much the Model 3 would cost in India, nor did he know when deliveries would begin, but he was willing to wait. Despite being a Musk fan, after a six-year wait, Gondal decided to buy an electric Audi instead.
Eventually, he was also able to track down India’s Tesla sales manager and got his deposit back in January 2023. One possible explanation for the long delay is that while the Model 3's base price is lower than the average new car in the U.S.
, India, on the other hand, is a country where the typical car costs about $14,000. That means the Model 3 would be priced like a relat.