Blaming ‘very heavy obligations’ around Tesla, Musk cancels much-anticipated India visit

NEW DELHI: In a sudden and unexpected move, maverick American billionaire Elon Musk canceled his India visit just days before his arrival where he was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and announce investments worth billions of dollars around a greenfield electric car project for Tesla, apart from satcom venture Starlink.
Musk, who had just a few days back announced plans to come to India and meet PM Modi through a tweet on his X handle, also informed about the cancellation through the same platform, blaming his official engagements around Tesla for the delay.
"Unfortunately, very heavy Tesla obligations require that the visit to India be delayed, but I do very much look forward to visiting later this year," he posted on his X handle.
It is understood that the billionaire CEO may now come to India post the election results as most of the political heavyweights are busy in electioneering.
In the US, Musk is expected to face tough questions from analysts when Tesla announces quarterly results on Tuesday about falling sales, rising competition from Chinese EV makers (such as BYD) and the fate of key future Tesla products. He also has an investor conference on Wednesday.
The cancellation, however, comes in as a disappointment for many, especially as Musk – who has the rare distinction of running a number of multi-billion-dollar enterprises such as Tesla, social media platform X (formerly Twitter), rocket and space company SpaceX, brain chip startup Neuralink, and tunnelling provider Boring Co – was to make announcements around the Tesla project.
A number of high-profile meetings – including with some of the country’s top businessmen -- were also expected during Musk’s visit, and he was also slated to address founders of some space startups during his stay here.
But the biggest on the agenda was the Tesla project. Govt had mid-March announced a fresh policy for manufacturing electric vehicles, especially tailoring it for new potential investors such as Tesla and Vietnamese VinFast who are keen to enter India.
Tesla, which has been looking at India for the past few years as a business opportunity, is expected to avail the policy and work towards investing between $2 and $3 billion in the country. The company had earlier told govt that it wants to make a budget EV in India, likely to be priced around Rs 25-30 lakh, and this would also be exported across some regions.
And before the factory comes up, the company will import some of its models to the country under a new subsidised import duty regime that has been promised in the new EV policy.
Musk’s visit was also expected to hasten up approval for his satcom venture Starlink that had been stuck in regulatory hurdles for the past three-and-a-half years. The company wants to set up operations in India at a time when OneWeb (where Sunil Mittal has a stake) and Reliance Jio have already got govt licenses.