Tesla’s India electric vehicle plans on track despite Elon Musk postponing Modi meeting

But days before Musk’s much-anticipated visit to India, he backed out.

“Unfortunately, very heavy Tesla obligations require that the visit to India be delayed, but I do very much look forward to visiting later this year,” Musk said in a post on X — formerly Twitter — on April 20.

“INDIA’s PM will welcome him soon, and the INDIA Government will promote electric vehicles even more aggressively – I myself am a user of one!” he said. INDIA refers to a coalition of opposition parties challenging Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Musk’s decision has led BJP supporters to speculate if he knew how the election would turn out in contrast to several surveys that had predicted the BJP’s return to power. The results of the elections are due on June 4.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told a press conference that “when big companies show interest to come to India, we certainly make sure to make it attractive for them.

“Especially after China started being a concern for many industries or many experts in domain areas, we have made policies in such a way that we are making India an attractive destination, both for manufacturing and services.”

While analysts were surprised by Musk’s decision, they agreed that Tesla would ultimately set up a base in India, which overtook Japan as the world’s third-largest automobile market in 2022.

As Tesla’s profitability has been declining after embarking on price cuts to capture a larger market share, it would need to tap the Indian market to increase its sales, said Puneet Gupta, director of mobility at S&P Global.

“They need a scale in India quickly so that they have a grip on the system. [Perhaps] they want to hire a local partner to minimise their risk,” Gupta said.

Tesla would need the