Electric vehicle giant Tesla (TSLA) is working hard to build interest for its product line in India, and turning to one of the most tried-and-true methods around: pointing out cost savings. It turns out that Indian buyers can recoup about a third of the cost of a Tesla with a Tesla’s savings over gas cars. The idea is sound enough, and almost universally appealing. After all, who is not interested in saving money? The move resonated with shareholders as well, and Tesla shares gained fractionally in Wednesday afternoon’s trading.
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Buying a Tesla in India is not a simple proposition. The Model Y currently runs 60 lakh, which is roughly $67,283 U.S. But when you factor in savings on fuel and maintenance, the Model Y will save its customers about 20 lakh, or just over $22,427 U.S. Tesla General Manager Sharad Agarwal pointed out that home charging costs run about a tenth of what gas prices do.
Agarwal also pointed out that Teslas tend to keep their resale value strong, which allows for more frequent upgrades at lower cost despite a somewhat high initial output. While sales have not been brisk so far—Tesla has registered 118 cars in India so far for all of 2025—it is clear that Tesla wants to expand this relationship by trying to convince Indians of Tesla’s value.
Patent Problems
And then, things got a little worse for Tesla’s robotics ambitions, as a company called Perrone Robotics filed suit, alleging that Tesla infringed on five of its patents. Specifically, on five patents directly related to the robotics systems involved in self-driving vehicles.
Interestingly, Perrone Robotics alleges that all Tesla vehicles with the Autopilot system that have been sold within the last six years infringe the patents in question. More telling was the revelation that one of the patents in question was for an item that Perrone tried to sell Tesla back in 2017. The other five are part of a system called GPROS, or the General Purpose Operating System for Robotics. GPROS covers things like path planning and extensions for control systems.
Is Tesla a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on TSLA stock based on 14 Buys, 10 Holds, and 10 Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 25.99% rally in its share price over the past year, the average TSLA price target of $383.04 per share implies 9.39% downside risk.
