Elon Musk apologises to Piyush Goyal after Tesla plant visit. Here's why

India's Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal recently visited the Tesla plant in California's Fremont where he announced that the electric vehicle (EV) giant would be doubling its auto components' import from the country in the times to come. But while the minister's visit was quite significant, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was not present at the facility at the time.

Musk took to social media platform X, which he also owns, to issue an apology to Goyal for his absence from the Fremont facility when the minister visited. This may be especially significant because Tesla has long been eying an entry into the Indian vehicle market which is the world's third largest, after China and the United States.

It is reported that Musk was unable to visit the Tesla facility with Goyal because of his ill health and the minister did make it a point to wish him a speedy recovery. Musk responded on the micro-blogging platform. "It was an honor 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," he tweeted.

Goyal had previously tweeted about his visit to the Tesla facility and commented on the growing significance of India and Indians to the rise of the EV company. “Visited @Tesla's state of the art manufacturing facility at Fremont, California. Extremely delighted to see talented Indian engineers and finance professionals working at Senior positions and contributing to Tesla's remarkable journey to transform mobility," he had written. “Also 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. Missed Mr @ElonMusk's magnetic presence and I wish him a speedy recovery."

Tesla and India have been trying to woo each other for quite some time now and reports suggest that India may allow for a reduction in import duty on Tesla models if the company assures setting up of a manufacturing facility here. Musk had even met Prime Minister Narendra Modi when PM Modi had visited New York in June of this year. The world's wealthiest person, Musk had also informed that he planned to visit India at some point in 2024. "I am planning to visit India next year. I am confident that Tesla will be in India and we will do so as soon as humanly possible," adding, “I would like to thank PM Modi for his support and hopefully, we will be able to announce something in the future."