US President Donald Trump has called Tesla CEO elon Musk's plan to build factory in India 'unfair' to the US as he claimed that it would be impossible for the tech magnate to sell his cars in India.
While speaking at an interview on high tariffs on imported cars from India, Trump reportedly stated, "Every country in the world takes advantage of us, and they do it with tariffs… It is impossible to sell a car, practically, in, as an example, India."
The American electric carmaker Tesla recently opened recruitments in India soon after the meeting of company founder Elon Musk with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the latter's recent US visit.
The company currently does not manufacture vehicles in India.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly criticized India's high import duties which are about 100 per cent on electric vehicles and they aim to shield local automakers such as Tata Motors.
However, the Indian government recently unveiled a new EV policy that reduces import taxes to 15 per cent if a carmaker invests a minimum of $500 million(INR 3,750 crore) and establishes a manufacturing plant locally.
Donald Trump in an interview with Fox News pointed out that even though the Tesla CEO has the right to open business wherever he wants to and definitely can build a factory in India but he stated that it might become a disadvantage to US in future.
“Now, if he built the factory in India, that라이브 바카라 okay, but that라이브 바카라 unfair to us. It라이브 바카라 very unfair,” Trump reportedly said.
When US President Doanld Trump announced to impose reciprocal tariffs on all US trades, he was asked if SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who had earlier met with PM Modi, spoke with the prime minister as a government worker or a tech magnate, amid concerns the meeting was related to the billionaire's business dealings.
In his reply, Trump said, “India is a very hard place to do business because of the tariffs. They have the highest tariffs, just about in the world, and it's a hard place to do business... No, I would imagine he (Musk) met possibly because, you know, he's running a company.”
Tesla Opens Recruitment In India
Tesla recently opened recruitments for various roles in India, including business operations analyst and customer support specialist, in what could be a precursor for the company's entry into the country.
As per the job postings on the company's website, the posts are for the 'Mumbai Suburban' area. A Reuters report said that the company was also hiring for locations including Delhi for 13 mid-level jobs.
Reportedly, these roles include service advisor, parts advisor, service technician, service manager, sales & customer support, store manager, sales & customer support, business operations analyst, customer support supervisor, customer support specialist, delivery operations specialist, order operations specialist, inside sales advisor, and consumer engagement manager.
Last April, company founder and American tech billionaire Elon Musk had postponed his proposed visit to India at the last minute citing "very heavy Tesla obligations" but the proposed visit had raised expectations of Musk announcing plans for the way forward for selling Tesla electric cars in India at the earliest.
Musk had said in 2022 that Tesla, which was earlier seeking a reduction in import duties to sell its vehicles in India, would not manufacture its products unless it is allowed to first sell and service its cars in the country.
In August 2021, Musk had said that Tesla may set up a manufacturing unit in India if it first succeeds with imported vehicles in the country. He had said Tesla wanted to launch its vehicles in India "but import duties are the highest in the world by far of any large country!"
