Tesla likely to announce factories in India as Musk meets Modi in US

Tech billionaire Elon Musk Tuesday dropped clues that his electric carmaking company Tesla's might unveil its investment plans for India amid Prime Minister Narendra Modi's calls that the company pour dollars into the world’s most populous country.

Musk’s remarks came after concluding his meeting with PM Modi as the Indian leader is on his three-day state visit to the US where he will meet officials from the Biden administration alongside business executives and people from other fields.

According to Reuters, Musk was to brief Modi “on plans to set up a manufacturing base in India”.

Musk, who also owns Twitter since last year, said that “India has strong potential for a sustainable energy future including solar power, stationary battery packs and electric vehicles.”

51-year-old CEO also expressed his intentions to “bring SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service to India.”

"He (Modi) really cares about India because he's pushing us to make significant investments in India, which is something we intend to do," said Elon Musk.

"I am confident that Tesla will be in India and will do so as soon as humanly possible," he added.

Musk also tweeted that he was "honour to meet [Modi] again" while replying to Modi's tweet.  

Later, India's foreign ministry spokesperson tweeted saying “Modi had invited Musk to explore opportunities in India for investments in electric mobility and rapidly expanding commercial space sector."

Reuters reported that New Delhi is looking to allow some US companies to initially collaborate with Indian firms for investments in its space sector.

The nuclear-armed country facilitated private launches in 2020 and intends its private space companies to increase their share of the global launch market five-fold within the next decade.

Executives of Tesla visited India and held talks with Indian bureaucrats and ministers last month on establishing a manufacturing base for cars and batteries in India.

Musk said last month Tesla would probably pick a location for a new factory by the end of this year, adding India was an interesting place for a new plant.

Last year, Musk’s Tesla shelved its India entry plans due to high import tax structures.

The meeting of Modi with Twitter’s boss also comes days after Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey alleged India of threatening to shut down the platform for not complying with content takedown orders during a 2020-2021 protest. India called the allegation an "outright lie".

"Twitter does not have a choice but to obey local governments. If we don't obey local government laws, we will get shut down...," Musk said Tuesday.