Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he’s “extremely enthusiastic about the way forward for India,” including that it has “extra promise than any massive nation on this planet.”

“I’m a fan of Modi,” Musk admitted Tuesday in a video interview revealed on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official YouTube web page. 

“He actually needs to do the fitting factor for India. He needs to be open, he needs to be supportive of latest firms, however on the identical time make certain it accrues to India’s benefit,” mentioned the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX after their assembly in New York.

Modi and Musk final met in 2015 when the Indian prime minister visited Tesla’s Fremont Manufacturing facility in California. 

The Indian prime minister is on his first state go to to the U.S., the place he is anticipated to carry high-level talks with leaders and enterprise executives on protection, expertise and India’s function within the Indo-Pacific.

President Joe Biden shall be internet hosting him at a White Home dinner in Washington on Thursday, the place Modi is anticipated to fulfill a slew of enterprise leaders together with Apple’s Tim Prepare dinner, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella.

Modi “actually cares about India as a result of he is pushing us to make important investments in India, which is one thing we intend to do and we’re simply making an attempt to determine the fitting timing,” Musk mentioned.

India holds nice potential for Tesla, one analyst instructed CNBC.

“Each single U.S. firm which has a listed subsidiary in India has seen increased development and worth creation in India,” Nilesh Shah, managing director at Kotak Mahindra Asset Administration, mentioned. 

“U.S. traders shall be reassured that constructing a U.S.-India partnership shall be a real win-win state of affairs for each nations,” he added. 

Investments from Tesla would intention to assist India’s sustainable power era primarily via photo voltaic and wind, mentioned the CEO of the EV maker. 

“India is nice for photo voltaic. The quantity of land space you truly must generate sufficient electrical energy to energy India could be very small. I imagine it would be in all probability 1% or 2% of the land space in India, so it’s totally doable.” 

Different areas of funding embody stationary battery packs and electrical automobiles. 

“India shall be a promising marketplace for Tesla as their destiny in China shall be just like different American automotive producers who ended up being crushed by Chinese language rivals,” Shah highlighted. 

Musk additionally mentioned that he is eager on enhancing India’s web connectivity and hopes to carry SpaceX’s Starlink satellite tv for pc web service to the South Asian nation. 

This may be “extremely useful for distant or rural villages the place they maybe could haven’t any entry to [the] web or the web could be very costly and gradual,” Musk mentioned. 

Musk mentioned Modi invited him to go to India, and it might occur as quickly as subsequent 12 months.

Modi’s go to to New York noticed him crossing paths with U.S. astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, investor Ray Dalio, and Grammy award winner Falguni Shah.