Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk is expected to visit Indonesia in November this year as he is wrapping up the operations of its electric car company in India.
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Reported first by IANS, the Indonesian government wishes to make the most of its vast nickel reserves to set up a world-class electric batteries industry. Indonesia's president, Joko ¡®Jokowi¡¯ Widodo met Musk at SpaceX¡¯s rocket production facility, Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas over the weekend who then invited the world¡¯s richest man to come to Indonesia.
Jakarta Globe reports that Musk has admitted to being very much interested in Indonesia¡¯s future and that he sees great potential for collaboration of some kind between SpaceX and Tesla. Other factors that have influenced him in looking at the Southeast nation from a different lens are its large popularity and consistent economic growth.
This move comes right after Union Road Transport and Highway Minister, Nitin Gadkari has made multiple requests to the Tesla CEO to come and set up manufacturing facilities for Tesla cars in India.
In fact, ministers of several states -- Telangana¡¯s KR Rama Rao, Maharashtra¡¯s minister and state NCP president Jayant Patil among several others -- have invited Musk with open arms to set up Tesla plants in India, but Musk hasn¡¯t been interested.
Musk has complained of facing challenges from the government in order to release its products in India, especially with the taxation on imported vehicles. To the unaware, India levies 100 percent tax on imported cars priced at over Rs 30 lakh (inclusive of insurance and shipping expenses), whereas cars priced less than that are subjected to 60 percent import tax.
Also read:?Not India, Elon Musk May Choose Indonesia As Tesla's Production Hub In Asia
Tesla fits in the former category and its most affordable car in the US, Model 3 won¡¯t be as affordable by the time it comes to India, with an expected price tag of Rs 60 lakh.?
The team that Tesla had hired in India has now been asked to shift its focus to the Middle East and larger Asia-Pacific markets. Nishant Prasad who was in charge of establishing Tesla¡¯s Supercharger network in India has now updated his profile which shows that he is now the Charging Operations Lead -- APAC.?
Manoj Khurana, on the other hand, who was Tesla¡¯s first recruit, looking after public policy and business development relocated to California last month and now looks after a product role.
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