Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal visited Tesla's manufacturing facility in California. However, company owner Elon Musk was not present during this period. He wrote in an X post- 'It is an honor to have you in Tesla! I am sorry for not being able to come to California today, but I look forward to meeting at a future date.
While sharing the photos, Piyush Goyal wrote on Goyal said- 'Missed the magnetic presence of Elon Musk and I wish for his speedy recovery.'
Recently, news agency Reuters had quoted sources as saying that the focus of the meeting between Musk and Goyal will be on Tesla's plan to set up a factory in India. Along with this, there can also be discussion on developing charging infrastructure.
It was also told in the report that new policies being made in India can also be discussed in the meeting. In this policy, there is a proposal to reduce the tax on importing electric cars to 15%. Tax will be reduced only if the company does manufacturing in India.
Currently, it imposes 70% custom duty for cars priced below $40,000 (approximately Rs 32.5 lakh) and 100% for cars priced above.
In June this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York. After this meeting, Musk had said – India has more possibilities than any other big country in the world. I am excited about the future of India. I am a fan of Modi. It was a great meeting and I like him a lot.
PM Modi also tweeted the picture of this meeting and wrote - 'It was a great meeting with you today, Elon Musk. We discussed issues ranging from energy to spirituality.
Last year, Tesla had expressed its desire to come to India, but talks could not be reached between the company and the government. Tesla had demanded the government to reduce the import duty on fully assembled vehicles from 100% to 40%.
The company wanted its vehicles to be considered electric vehicles and not luxury, but the government had said that it had no intention of waiving or reducing the import duty on any electric vehicles imported from other countries.
The government had said that if Tesla commits to setting up a manufacturing plant in India, then exemption on imports will be considered. However, Musk wanted that cars should be sold in India first, after which the idea of setting up a plant would be considered.
Also replying in a tweet on May 27, 2022, Elon Musk had said, 'Tesla will not set up a manufacturing plant at any location where it does not already have permission to sell and service cars.'
