Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal visited the manufacturing facility of US-based electric vehicle major Tesla at Fremont, California, on Tuesday and highlighted India’s role in contributing to Tesla’s remarkable journey. During his visit, he engaged with Indian engineers and financial professionals, but missed Elon Musk’s ”magnetic presence”.
Notably, the Twitter boss was unable to meet the minister in person as he was unwell. Responding to Mr. Goyal’s post on his visit to the Tesla factory, the billionaire expressed his honour in having the minister visit and said that he looked forward to a future meeting.
“Visited @Tesla’s state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Fremont, California. Extremely delighted to see talented Indian engineers and finance professionals working in Senior positions and contributing to Tesla’s remarkable journey to transform mobility,” Mr Goyal wrote, sharing pictures from his visit to Tesla’s state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Fremont.
“Also proud to see the growing importance of auto component suppliers from India in the Tesla EV supply chain. It is on its way to double its components imports from India. Missed Mr @ElonMusk’s magnetic presence and I wish him a speedy recovery,” Mr Goyal said on social networking platform X.
Replying to him, Mr Musk tweeted, ”It was an honor to have you visit Tesla! My apologies for not being able to travel to California today, but I look forward to meeting at a future date.”
According to sources cited by Reuters, Tesla is actively pursuing the establishment of an Indian factory, aiming to manufacture a $24,000 car within the country.
The visit assumes significance as there are reports that India is looking at giving customs duty concessions to Tesla for setting up a plant in the country. In September, Mr Goyal said the company is looking to source components worth around USD 1.9 billion from India this year against USD 1 billion in 2022.
In August 2021, Elon Musk said Tesla might set up a manufacturing unit in India if it first succeeded with imported vehicles in the country. He had said Tesla wanted to launch its vehicles in India “but import duties are the highest in the world by far of any large country!”.
