When Musk travels to India, Tesla and Starlink will be on the agenda

Elon Musk, a tech entrepreneur, is scheduled to go to India to explore new business opportunities in the most populated country in the world. Tesla, an electric vehicle manufacturer seeing a decline in sales in the US, is purportedly looking for potential plant sites.

 

According to a government source who spoke to AFP, Starlink, a company controlled by Elon Musk, is expected to get preliminary permits to operate in India.

The many content removal orders that India’s government applies on X, the social media company he took over in 2022, are also probably on the self-described “free speech absolutist”‘s agenda.

“Looking forward to meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India!” Musk did not specify the date of the visit when he posted on X last week.

According to rumors in Indian media, the billionaire and Modi have been pursuing one other aggressively for months. It is possible that the trip may start on Sunday and extend for two days.

Following their June 2016 meeting in New York, Musk said that Modi had pressured the businessman to “make significant investments in India”— something he claimed his firms were planning to do.

A decline in American demand and heightened competition from China are now plaguing Tesla, which is reportedly considering cutting staff.

Musk said that India “has more promise than any large country in the world” and himself as a supporter of Modi.

Although international corporations are looking for alternatives to China, India often fails to attract foreign direct investment, and Musk’s adoration has not yet resulted in multibillion-dollar pledges.

Without local production, India’s hefty import duties on electric vehicles—of which Musk previously claimed to be among the “highest in the world”—have kept Tesla from being widely accepted.

Additionally, Starlink received a rare public scolding from the communications ministry in 2021 when it was alleged that the business had begun “preselling” its services in India without a license to do so.

The red carpet

However, in an effort to draw more foreign investment ahead of this Friday’s six-week national elections, the administration has relaxed laws this year.

For international manufacturers that pledged to spend $500 million and begin local manufacturing within three years, import tariffs on electric cars were lowered last month.

Under the new program, import tariffs on up to 8,000 electric cars valued at $35,000 or more are lowered to 15% per year for enterprises importing these vehicles.

Earlier in the month, The Financial Times revealed that Tesla planned to dispatch a team to explore potential production sites across a minimum of three states.

Until it decides where to locate a manufacturing line, Tesla reportedly intends to import vehicles from its Berlin facility, according to reports in Indian media.

Experts predict that the corporation won’t get an instant boost from the Indian market because of the high cost of its vehicles.

The Model 3 car, which sells for around $39,000 in the US, is now Tesla’s least expensive model.

According to Soumen Mandal, senior analyst at market research company Counterpoint, “cars that are priced more than Rs 20 lakh ($23,900) have only a five percent market share in India.” Mandal made this statement to AFP.

But he went on to say that Tesla would be positioning itself for an inflection moment when disposable incomes increased and the cost of producing electric vehicles decreased, leading to increased demand.

According to Counterpoint’s projections, by 2030, the proportion of electric cars in total automobile sales will increase from 2% to roughly 30%.

publishing combat

Only the social media network X, previously known as Twitter, which he inherited, is the subject of Musk’s current commercial interest in India.

He is still fighting takedown orders that require the removal of tweets and accounts critical of Modi’s administration in court, a legal struggle that began before he ever acquired the account.

More Indians than virtually any other nation petition X for content deletions; since Modi entered power 10 years ago, journalistic liberties in India have precipitously declined.

Information technology minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar called the allegations made by former X CEO Jack Dorsey last year—which he said was a “outright lie”—that government authorities in India threatened to shut down the platform unless it complied with their requests.

X is contesting a court decision from last year that required the platform to comply with government takedown orders under its new ownership.

Musk, meanwhile, has expressed optimism over the limitations the business faces in India.

“We can’t go beyond the laws; the rules in India are quite strict about what can appear on social media,” he said to a BBC correspondent last year.

“If we have a choice of either our people go to prison or we comply with the laws, we will comply with the laws.”