The entry of Tesla into India is highly awaited. The American electric car company has in fact set up its Indian head office (Tesla India Motors and EnergyPvt Ltd) in Bengaluru and is said to be scouting for locations to make a factory. An encouraging bit of news for the Indian fans of Tesla is that the company is adding Hindi as one of the languages through which the car’s interface can be controlled. A Twitter user, @greentheonly, has posted certain pictures of the UI in Hindi. He also says that apart from this language, one can also customise the UI with Finnish, Greek, Croatian, Russian. Apparently, all this is in the beta phase of testing and will be rolled out in the next update. OTA updates are part of the Tesla UI. This will be an added impetus for Indian customers when the Tesla cars are available for sale here.

Multiple Tesla test cars have been spotted doing their rounds in Pune. Tesla India is likely to first launch the Model 3. The car will come in as a CBU and will likely cost Rs 50 lakh+. While there are no direct rivals to this electric wonder, expect Mercedes-Benz, Audi to follow suit with their battery-powered sedans. Given that most of Tesla’s activity has been happening in and around Pune, Maharashtra might seem to be a likely manufacturing hub for the American carmaker. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka as well as Gujarat too are in the forefront in getting Tesla to invest in their state.

The aforementioned Model 3 is one of the most affordable Teslas. It comes with Performance, Standard Plus as well as Long Range options. All-wheel drive setup is available with the Performance as well as Long Range options and the claimed distance these cars can cover on a single charge is 500km+. The Standard Plus in the meanwhile adopts a rear-wheel drive configuration and goes 400km+ before needing to be charged.