new delhi tesla has put on hold plans to sell electric cars in india abandoned a search for showroom space and reassigned some of its domestic team after failing to secure lower import taxes three people familiar with the matter told reutersthe decision caps more than a year of deadlocked talks with government representatives as tesla sought to first test demand by selling electric vehicles evs imported from production hubs in the united states and china at lower tariffsbut the government is pushing tesla to commit to manufacturing locally before it will lower tariffs which can run as high as 100 on imported vehiclestesla had set itself a deadline of february 1 the day india unveiled its budget and announced tax changes to see if its lobbying brought a result the sources with knowledge of the companys plan told reuterswhen the government did not offer a concession tesla put on hold the plans to import cars into india added the sources who sought anonymity because the deliberations were privatefor months tesla had scouted for real estate options to open showrooms and service centres in new delhi mumbai and bengaluru but that plan is also now on hold two of the sources saidtesla did not respond to an email seeking commenta government spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for commenttesla has assigned additional responsibilities for other markets to some of its small team in india its india policy executive manuj khurana has taken on an additional product role in san francisco since march his linkedin profile showsas recently as january chief executive elon musk had said tesla was still working through a lot of challenges with the government in regard to sales in indiabut the strong demand for teslas vehicles elsewhere and the standoff over import taxes prompted the shift in strategy the sources saidthe government has sought to lure manufacturers with a make in india campaign transport minister nitin gadkari said in april it would not be a good proposition for tesla to import cars from china to indiabut new delhi had clinched a win in january when german luxury carmaker mercedesbenz said it would start assembling one of its electric cars in indiatesla had looked to gain an early advantage in indias small but growing market for electric vehicles now dominated by domestic automaker tata motorsteslas price tag of 40000 at minimum would put it in the luxury segment of the indian market where sales make up just a tiny fraction of annual vehicle sales of about 3 million