‘Wish you a speedy recovery’: Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal to Tesla CEO Elon Musk

Tech Billionaire Elon Musk was absent from the recent Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal's visit to the Tesla manufacturing plant in the US. The reason behind his absence was health issues. The minister stated that he was delighted by the visit but missed the “magnetic presence” of the Tesla CEO. He also wished him a “speedy recovery”.

Visited @Tesla’s state of the art manufacturing facility at Fremont, California.

Extremely delighted to see talented Indian engineers & finance professionals working at Senior positions and contributing to Tesla’s remarkable journey to transform mobility.

Also proud to see… pic.twitter.com/FQx1dKiDlf

— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) November 14, 2023

Musk relayed his apology for the same and promised to make up for it. Musk had previously suffered from severe back pain that started occurring because of the intense work schedule. Musk responded to the minister's post stating, “It was an honour to have you visit Tesla! My apologies for not being able to travel to California today, but I look forward to meeting at a future date.”

I spent 3 hours in an MRI machine on Monday. Bottom line is that my C5/C6 fusion is solid, so not an issue.

However, there is a problem with my right shoulder blade rubbing against my ribs, which requires minor surgery. Recovery will only take a few months.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 11, 2023

Back in August, he had even announced that he needed a “minor surgery”. He wrote, “There is a problem with my right shoulder blade rubbing against my ribs, which requires minor surgery. Recovery will only take a few months.”

Tesla is planning to open its manufacturing plant in India. The US carmaker is in talks with the government and has requested to lower the import duties. After several rounds of talks, it looks like the government is finally ready to lower the import duties for EVs in India. As per a report by the Financial Times, India is considering reducing taxes on the import of electric vehicles.

The government is considering reducing it to 15 per cent for electric vehicles of all prices. However, the report clarifies that the government has not yet agreed upon this change in policy.

As per a statement received by FT from a source familiar with the matter, “Their view has always been that they need some tariff concessions at least in the interim period… It would have some kind of sunset clause."

In a recent post, the minister of Commerce, Piyush Goyal wrote on X, "Proud to see the growing importance of Auto component suppliers from India in the Tesla EV supply chain. It is on its way to double its components imports from India.”

Musk had earlier said that Tesla was aiming to source components worth between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion from India this year, having bought $1 billion of components last year.

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