Tesla chief govt Elon Musk mentioned on Tuesday that the electrical carmaker is seeking to put money into India “as quickly as humanly potential.”
His feedback adopted a gathering with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York throughout Modi’s state go to to america. A supply beforehand informed Reuters that Musk would transient Modi on plans to arrange a producing base in India.
“I’m assured that Tesla will likely be in India and can achieve this as quickly as humanly potential,” Musk mentioned when requested by reporters about Tesla’s plan to put money into India, including he supposed to go to the nation subsequent 12 months.
“I want to thank the Prime Minister for his assist and hopefully we’ll have the ability to announce one thing within the not too distant future,” he added.
Musk mentioned he’s “a fan” of Modi and famous the prime minister visited a Tesla manufacturing facility in California a number of years in the past, in line with video from Indian broadcaster ANI on Twitter.
“India has extra promise than any massive nation on the earth. He (Modi) actually cares about India as a result of he is pushing us to make important investments in India, which is one thing we intend to do. We’re simply making an attempt to determine the correct timing Musk mentioned.
India has robust potential for a sustainable vitality future together with solar energy, stationary battery packs and electrical automobiles, he mentioned. Musk, additionally CEO of SpaceX, mentioned it hopes to carry Starlink satellite tv for pc Web service to India as nicely.
Executives of Tesla visited India and held talks with Indian bureaucrats and ministers final month on establishing a producing base for vehicles and batteries in India.
Musk mentioned final month Tesla would most likely decide a location for a brand new manufacturing facility by the tip of this 12 months, including India was an attention-grabbing place for a brand new plant.
US corporations want to scale back reliance on China as a producing base within the face of tensions between Washington and Beijing. Tesla final 12 months shelved its India entry plans as a consequence of excessive import tax constructions.
Modi’s assembly with Musk, who owns Twitter, got here days after Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey accused India of threatening to close down the platform for not complying with content material takedown orders throughout a 2020-2021 protest. India referred to as the allegation an “outright lie”.
Musk has not commented on the episode, which prompted a political storm in India.
© Thomson Reuters 2023