When Tesla CEO met Indian PM

“He wants to be supportive of new companies…” Elon Musk opened up about his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Transcript

00:00I can say he really wants to do the right thing for India.

00:14I'm a fan of Modi, so...

00:17Well, I'm actually incredibly excited about the future of India.

00:46I think India has more promise than any large country in the world.

00:50The takeaways from the meeting?

00:52Takeaways from the meeting, he really cares about India, because he's pushing us to make

00:57significant investments in India, which is something that we intend to do, and we're

01:03just trying to figure out the right timing.

01:04In a nutshell, it was a fantastic meeting with the Prime Minister, and I like him quite

01:13a lot.

01:14We met in our Fremont factory several years ago, and so we've now known each other for

01:18a while.

01:19How do you see Prime Minister Modi's leadership role as far as making technology inclusive

01:23so that digital infrastructure can be created?

01:26I can say he really wants to do the right thing for India.

01:31He wants to be open, he wants to be supportive of new companies, and obviously, but at the

01:35same time, make sure it accrues to India's advantage, which is, obviously, that's the

01:40job.

01:42I am a fan of Modi, so I have to say that.

01:46What are your future plans, personally?

01:47What do you look at as far as investment in India is concerned?

01:51Yeah, well, I think there's a tremendous amount of potential for all three pillars of the

01:56sustainable energy future, the three pillars being sustainable energy generation through

02:02solar and wind, primarily, and obviously, India is great for solar, and the amount of

02:07land area you actually need to generate enough electricity to power India is very small.

02:13I believe it'd be probably one or two percent of the land area of India, so it's very doable,

02:19and then you need to pair that with stationary battery packs because the sun doesn't shine

02:23at night, and then you need electric vehicles, and then you have a sustainable energy future,

02:28and I think the interesting thing people will find is that this is a lower-cost way to go

02:32as well.

02:34That may surprise people, and we're also hopefully looking forward to bringing Starlink to India

02:37as well, the Starlink internet, which I think can be incredibly helpful for remote or rural

02:47villages where they perhaps may have no access to internet, or the internet is very expensive

02:52and slow.

02:53Do you plan to visit India anytime soon, but did the Prime Minister extend an invitation

02:57to you?

02:58He did, and yes, I'm tentatively planning to visit India again next year, and I'm looking

03:06forward to it.