Mahindra Group chairperson Anand Mahindra agrees with his US-based counterpart Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on the latter’s comments about the operations of carmakers and the challenges that they face whether in India, US, Europe or any part of the world. The industrialist, known for his active social media presence, replied to Musk stating that this is something Mahindra have been doing for decades.
“You said it, Elon Musk and we’ve been doing that for decades now. Still sweating and slaving away at it. It’s our way of life…,” Mahindra tweeted.
For the unknown, Elon Musk recently made some comments about how large car companies make money. Musk said in response to a tweet that production of cars is a tough nut to crack. “Production is hard. Production with positive cash flow is extremely hard,” Musk tweeted.
In a reply to this tweet, Musk further explained how carmakers make money. “Large incumbent carmakers sell their cars at low to zero true margin. Most of their profit is selling replacement parts to their fleet, of which 70% to 80% are past warranty. Like razors and blades. New car companies lack this advantage. Also lack sales and service infrastructure,” Musk said.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk has complained about exorbitant import duties on electric vehicles in India and also sought a temporary relief regarding the same from the Indian government. “We want to do so, but import duties are the highest in the world by far of any large country,” the entrepreneur tweeted. He further added, “But we are hopeful that there will be at least a temporary tariff relief for electric vehicles.”
Edited by Mehak Agarwal
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