India's electric car dream is over before it even begins.
Why do you say that? Because Musk, who had been in a hot fight with Modi and promised to invest two or three billion dollars to build a factory in India, suddenly announced that his trip had been canceled the day before the original departure date. In this way, the investment plan and transaction projects that were said before will naturally be lost.
On the surface, Musk's explanation is that he has been busy dealing with Tesla's troublesome debt problems recently, so he has not had time to meet with Modi. He also said he hoped to visit New Delhi again later this year.
This is not a lie, because since late April, Tesla has indeed faced considerable economic difficulties internally. Musk announced plans to lay off 10% of his workforce and fired two executives.
But if you think about it carefully, you can see that this matter is full of weirdness.
First, it is not a trivial matter to meet with the leaders of a country about billions of investment projects. No matter how busy Musk is, if he announces the adjustment of his itinerary a few days in advance, it will definitely be in time, so that he will not miss the appointment until the day before his departure.
Second, Modi asked Musk to visit New Delhi this time because of political calculations. At present, India is holding a national election, and Modi believes that attracting Musk to invest in India can win more votes for the BJP. Now, the boiled duck flies, and when the Indian elections are over in June, even if Musk visits India again, it will not be so valuable to Modi.
Third, if Tesla is facing economic difficulties, then finding a new place to invest overseas is logically an operation to boost market confidence. As a result, Musk did the opposite and put a cold face on India, which is obviously unreasonable.
These three weirdness point to a common result, that is, Musk and Modi are likely to collapse on the issue of investment. Musk escaped, firstly, because he wanted to raise his own value, and secondly, because he felt that even if he visited India this time, he would not be able to talk about any results, so Modi hit a soft nail.
As for why the cooked duck flew, it should be Modi's own doing.
Because just a few days ago, Modi sanctioned another high-tech company, China's Xiaomi. The All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA) has announced that it will stop selling Xiaomi OnePlus products starting in May this year. At the same time, Poco, another sub-brand of Xiaomi, has also been labeled as having "monopolistic and anti-competitive behavior" in India. Modi has threatened to revoke the brand's trading license if the investigation is true.
is also a technology company, seeing that Xiaomi has been swept away by India one after another, Musk has to reconsider the issue of investing in India, even if he is big-hearted. India has "struck hard" at Chinese companies, thinking that it has taken advantage, but in fact it has suffered a big loss, exposing the fact that India's business environment is bad to all major customers.
Xiaomi's lesson in blood tells global high-tech companies that investing in India is a big gamble. If it had been placed in the past, when Tesla was doing well, Musk might have been willing to take this risk, but as mentioned above, Tesla is facing a debt problem recently, and Musk will keep his distance from India as long as he is still sensible.
Musk's suspension of the transaction this time also shows one thing, that is, India has been telling the world about the investment myth for more than ten years, and it is about to be impossible to talk about. Now, all companies, whether Chinese or American, have realized that India's international business environment is for gamblers who make a fortune and run away, not for those who want to do business in a down-to-earth manner. Modi has tried to torment Chinese companies, and as a result, he has squandered his country's credit lines, and now he is about to see the bottom out.
In the future, on the road of industrial upgrading, Modi may only have to stare dryly.