Brand Analysis: Tesla’s Strength and Weaknesses: Tesla India

Tesla is an American electric vehicle & clean energy company, headquartered in Palo Alto, California. It deals in electric cars, battery energy storage from home to grid-scale, solar roof tiles, solar panels, etc. Tesla led the plug-in market and the battery-electric car passenger segment with the highest sales in 2020. The company captured sixteen percent of the plug-in market (which includes plug-in hybrids) and twenty-three percent of the battery-electric (entirely electric) market.

Tesla was founded in July 2003 as Tesla Motors by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. The company’s name is a tribute to an electrical engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla. Elon Musk, who was the major contributor in the initial funding of the company, has served as its CEO since 2008.

Brand Scorecard

Tesla is one of the leading companies in the automobile industry with the ability to build entirely electrically powered vehicles in-house. The brand serves the rich and affluent sections looking for electric premium luxury/sports cars.

Tesla’s strengths include:

• ‘The Roadster’ – first fully electric sports car developed by Tesla
• Other manufacturers like Toyota bring in supplies from Tesla
• Compelling technological expertise in electric transmission and drive train domain
• Ability to develop vehicles entirely along with the required sub-assemblies
• The present-day platform developed for Model S can be used for any future model they ideate, including the future crossover model
• Tesla is a stalwart in electric cars, owing to its improved brand image and brand equity over the years

Some of Tesla’s weaknesses & threats include:

• Higher cost of production as the company manufactures the vehicle entirely in-house including the sub-assemblies thereby economies of scale are not incorporated
• Their competitors who sell vehicles powered by combustion engines have a comparatively lesser price
• Concentrated heavily in western countries
• The company’s competition is against a well-rooted technology of combustion engines and also Tesla’s technology might take time for the masses to afford and adopt.

Opportunities for Tesla:

• Exemption of duties and other support from governments all over the world for eco-friendly vehicles
• Reduction in costs with improvement in quality control processes
• Entering newer markets that are still adopting electric cars like Asia, where the potential is enormous

Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk said that all future transport will be electric with the exception of rockets. The company definitely seems to be paving its way in the future.

Tesla in India

The long wait for Tesla in India is hopefully ending with the declaration of Tesla Inc. in India this year.

Tesla is offered 1,000 acres of land by the Gujarat government to establish a plant in India. It is located both within and outside Adani Ports and Mundra Special Economic Zones. It is also home to the largest private port in India.

Gujarat is one of many Indian states that are trying to lure Tesla to India. Maharashtra, Karnataka are the other two. All three of these states are located on the coast. Tesla has easy access to West Asian, African, and other markets in each state. However, the most recent offer is 1,000 acres.

The Model 3 is one of the first Teslas to arrive in India. It will launch before the end of 2012. It is expected to be Tesla’s most affordable model, but you will need to spend quite a lot to get it. The Tesla Model 3 is expected to retail for around Rs 60 lakh.

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