Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and new owner of Twitter, recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his official state visit to the United States. After meeting PM Modi, Elon Musk said that India is a key market for investments and he will be entering the country next year with the Tesla electric cars. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Tesla chief Elon Musk and invited him to explore opportunities in India for investments in electric mobility and the rapidly expanding commercial space sector. However, Musk further said that he will not make any formal announcements anytime soon, though India remains an important market for the brand.
Elon Musk said, "We don't want to jump the gun with an announcement but it's quite likely that there will be a significant investment for India in the future." Tesla was supposed to enter the Indian market last year itself, when the brand established its first ever office in Bengaluru. Few cars were also imported in India for homologation purposes. However, high import duty on cars forced the brand the pull out of the market, after failed negotiations with the government of India.
The brand wanted lower import duties on EVs for entering India, while Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways said that Tesla deserves "no special treatment." As reported by ANI, in a quick counter question by reporters asking what changed his mind about Tesla's investments in India, he smilingly said, "I have never changed my mind".
Speaking to reporters after meeting with PM Modi, Musk, who is also CEO of SpaceX and owner, CTO and chairman of Twitter, said he was incredibly excited about the future of India. He said that India has more promise than any large country in the world. "In a nutshell, it was a fantastic meeting with the Prime Minister. I like him quite a lot and he visited our factory a few years ago. So we have known each other for a while," Musk said.
"I am tentatively planning to visit India again next year. I am looking forward to it," he added. Musk, responding to questions from reporters, said he was confident that his car company Tesla will be in India "as soon as humanly possible".
"I would like to thank PM Modi for his support and hopefully, we will be able to announce something in the not-too-distant future," Musk said. "PM Modi really cares about India. He is pushing us to make significant investments in India which is something we intend to do and we are figuring out the right timing," Musk said on Wednesday.
