‘I am a fan of Modi’: Elon Musk on his friendship with Indian Prime Minister Modi

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he’s “incredibly excited about the future of India,” including that it has “more promise than any large country in the world.”

“I am a fan of Modi,” Musk admitted Tuesday in a video interview printed on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official YouTube web page. 

“He really wants to do the right thing for India. He wants to be open, he wants to be supportive of new companies, but at the same time make sure it accrues to India’s advantage,” mentioned the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX after their assembly in New York.

Modi and Musk final met in 2015 when the Indian prime minister visited Tesla’s Fremont Factory in California. 

The Indian prime minister is on his first state go to to the U.S., the place he is anticipated to carry high-level talks with leaders and business executives on protection, expertise and India’s function within the Indo-Pacific.

President Joe Biden might be internet hosting him at a White House dinner in Washington on Thursday, the place Modi is predicted to fulfill a slew of business leaders together with Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella.

Modi “really cares about India because he’s pushing us to make significant investments in India, which is something we intend to do and we’re just trying to figure out the right timing,” Musk mentioned.

India holds nice potential for Tesla, one analyst informed CNBC.

“Every single U.S. company which has a listed subsidiary in India has seen higher growth and value creation in India,” Nilesh Shah, managing director at Kotak Mahindra Asset Management, mentioned. 

“U.S. investors will be reassured that building a U.S.-India partnership will be a true win-win situation for both countries,” he added. 

Investments from Tesla would purpose to help India’s sustainable vitality technology primarily by photo voltaic and wind, mentioned the CEO of the EV maker. 

“India is great for solar. The amount of land area you actually need to generate enough electricity to power India is very small. I believe it’d be probably 1% or 2% of the land area in India, so it’s very doable.” 

Other areas of funding embrace stationary battery packs and electrical automobiles. 

“India will be a promising market for Tesla as their fate in China will be similar to other American car manufacturers who ended up being beaten by Chinese competitors,” Shah highlighted. 

Musk additionally mentioned that he is eager on bettering India’s web connectivity and hopes to deliver SpaceX’s Starlink satellite tv for pc web service to the South Asian nation. 

This might be “incredibly helpful for remote or rural villages where they perhaps may have no access to [the] internet or the internet is very expensive and slow,” Musk mentioned. 

Musk mentioned Modi invited him to go to India, and it might occur as quickly as subsequent yr.

Modi’s go to to New York noticed him crossing paths with U.S. astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, investor Ray Dalio, and Grammy award winner Falguni Shah.