Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc and SpaceX, in New York today. Musk is also the owner, CTO and chairman of Twitter, founder of the Boring company and X-Corp, co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI.
Prime Minister Modi appreciated Musk’s efforts at making technology accessible and affordable in various sectors and invited him to explore opportunities in India for investments in electric mobility and the rapidly expanding commercial space sector.
In an ANI video and tweet, after meeting PM Modi, Elon Musk said: “I am planning to visit India next year. I am confident that Tesla will be in India and we will do so 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 future. It is quite likely there will be a significant investment in India. It was an excellent conversation with the Prime Minister.”
Musk added, “I’m incredibly excited about the future of India. India has more promise than any large country in the world. He (PM Modi) really cares about India as he’s pushing us to make significant investments in India..”
Just last month, Tesla executives had visited India and engaged in talks with Indian ministers and bureaucrats on setting up a manufacturing base for cars and batteries in the country. Musk had said that Tesla would probably pick a location for a new factory in India by the end of this year.
Last year, Tesla had put its plans to invest in India on hold due to high import tax structures. Previous discussions between the automaker and the government ended in an impasse, after its request to reduce import tax on cars that can go up to 100 percent, was not taken into consideration. India wanted Tesla to build cars locally, whereas the auto firm wanted to test the waters first with imports. US companies are looking to reduce their reliance on China as a manufacturing base in the face of tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Image: PIB