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Tesla Motors Chinese Site Goes Online; To Start Selling From 2014
Tesla Motors, the American manufacturer of electric luxury car, Model S gets one step closer to selling cars in China with the launch of its locate website, Tousule.cn earlier this week. The launch of the website follows the opening of the first Tesla showroom in November.
Tesla had to settle for "Tousule" as the "Tesla" domain was registered by a local company as early as 2006, though it's in disuse. "Tousule" is the Chinese pronunciation of Tesla.
Related: Tesla Motors To Sell Budget Electric Cars In Asia
Tesla will start selling its vehicles - Model S and Model X - in China from the first quarter of 2014. The automaker has already started accepting bookings, both via its website as well as the showroom. Pre-orders are being taken for a cost of RMB 250,000, or about $41,000 (INR 25.42 lakhs).
The Model S will turn out to be a high end luxury car in China because of heavy taxation. The Model S will cost between $146,000 and $200,000 in China, which is a lot more than the $71,000 - $120,000 it costs in the U.S.
Tesla Model S is expected to be sell well in the cities of Shanghai and Beijing where most of the country's wealth lies. These are also cities with extreme pollution related problems, which makes the all electric Model S a good buy for wealthy environmentally conscious citizens.
Tesla will still find its China journey riddled with difficulties. For one, it still has to tackle the enormous challenge of setting up charging stations all across major cities. This might be made more difficult by the fact that the American company has to compete with local players such as BYD, which are government backed and thus have the home advantage.
Tesla is also considering launching smaller electric vehicles in the coming years and planning to enter newer Asian market. Tesla Motors in India is a real possibility, but that could happen only towards the end of this decade.
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