New Delhi, July 23 -- Company Outsider is a weekly newsletter by Sundeep Khanna. Subscribe to Mint's newsletters to get them directly in your email inbox.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) group chairman Anand Mahindra welcomed Tesla's India entry with a friendly "Competition drives innovation, and there's plenty of road ahead" post on X. His confidence is not misplaced. In the most recent quarter, M&M surpassed Hyundai to become India's second-largest automaker by volume.

But his aplomb obscures a more fundamental truth: Tesla and M&M operate in two entirely different markets - not segments. Indeed, in automotives, they belong to two parallel universes. Their vehicles, customers, pricing, and value propositions are so distinct that the two bra...