By Aditi Shah, Aditya Kalra and Sarita Chaganti Singh
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Tesla chief Elon Musk has postponed a planned trip to India, where he was to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday and announce plans to enter the South Asian market, four people said familiar with the matter on Saturday.
Reuters was unable to immediately determine why Musk postponed the trip. Tesla and Modi’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
After Reuters reported his India travel plans on April 10, the CEO posted on X: “Looking forward to meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India!”
In New Delhi, Musk was expected to announce an investment of 2 billion to 3 billion dollars, mainly to build a factory in India, after the government announced a policy of reducing high tariffs on imported cars if companies invest locally, Reuters reported.
He was also scheduled to meet executives of several space startups in New Delhi. Musk is awaiting regulatory approvals from the Indian government to begin offering his Starlink satellite broadband services in the world’s most populous country.
Musk’s planned arrival on Sunday was supposed to come two days after the start of national elections in India, in which Modi is expected to win a rare third term.
The CEO and the Prime Minister are both at critical moments.
Modi, in his election campaign, wants to highlight progress towards his promises to make India a global industrial hub. Tesla could have used India’s announcement to reassure investors after months of share price declines and the April 15 news that it would lay off more than 10% of its global workforce.
Rohan Patel, a public policy executive at Tesla who sources say was one of those who led the company’s entry plans into India, also resigned this week.
(Reporting by Aditi and Shah Aditya Kalra; Editing by William Mallard)
