Elon Musk Prepares For India Visit This Year After Call With PM Modi

Elon Musk is looking forward to visiting India later this year, even as Tesla Inc. looks to open its first store in the world’s third-largest car market.

“It was an honor to speak with PM Modi,” the chief executive of the world’s most valuable carmaker said in a post on X, quoting PM Narendra Modi’s post on their phone call on Friday. “I am looking forward to visiting India later this year!"

According to PM Modi’s post, he and Elon Musk talked about “various issues”, including the topics they covered during their meeting in Washington DC earlier this year.

“We discussed the immense potential for collaboration in the areas of technology and innovation,” PM Modi said in the post. “India remains committed to advancing our partnerships with the US in these domains.”

Musk’s intention to visit India comes against the backdrop of two of his companies—Tesla and Starlink—planning to enter the world’s most populous country.

While the electric carmaker has identified at least two locations to open its first stores in India, the satellite internet provider has tied up with both Bharti Airtel Ltd and Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd to roll out satellite-based broadband services.

Additionally, Tesla has listed at least 27 jobs on its careers page for India, including three in supply chain. Two of its cars are already homologated in India and were spotted testing on the Mumbai-Pune motorway.

Tesla has leased a 4,003-square-foot space in the Maker Maxity building in Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai, according to registration documents sourced from CRE Matrix, a real estate data analytics firm.

The licensee is Tesla India Motor & Energy Pvt. Ltd., which has an office at Panchsheel Business Park in Viman Nagar, Pune. The licensor is Univco Properties LLP.

Separately, at least three central government ministries—heavy industries, finance and industry & commerce—are hard at work, hammering out the modalities of the ‘Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Electric Passenger Cars in India’. The final draft is with the prime minister’s office now. First introduced nearly a year ago to no takers, India’s EV policy is seen as the pathway for Tesla Inc.’s entry into India. The biggest hurdle, of course, is tariffs.

That’s where the India-US trade deal comes in.

Washington DC and New Delhi are negotiating an ambitious deal with a stated target to reach $500 billion in trade by 2030. Musk is a prominent adviser to US President Donald Trump. PM Modi had met him during his US trip in February this year.

Besides, Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, are slated to visit India next week. Among the agenda on the table will be tariffs. The US slapped a 26% import tariff on Indian goods earlier this month, before pausing implementation for 90 days.

The two sides are set to hold sector-specific talks in the coming weeks under a trade agreement. The first phase of the deal between India and the US can be out within the tariff-pause period. The terms of reference for the pact have been finalised and further talks are set to take place primarily over video conferencing, though there is a possibility of Indian negotiators visiting the US and vice versa, NDTV Profit previously reported.

The deal is also unlikely to have a zero-for-zero tariff strategy since such a plan is usually more mutually beneficial for more developed economies. Economies like the European Union and the US can offer it to each other, but it would not pan out well between India and the US, they said.