Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the premiere American automobile giant- Tesla Motors – at their plant in Fremont, where he discussed ideas of electricity generation in rural India.
The Prime Minister on his arrival here was welcomed by JB Straubel, Tesla’s Chief Technology Officer, and Deepak Ahuja, Chief Financial Officer.
“Engines of the future. PM @narendramodi takes a tour of @TeslaMotors, leading builder of electric cars,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave a presentation to the Prime Minister.
Sharing a vision. CEO @elonmusk engineer, inventor and investor gives a presentation to PM @narendramodi pic.twitter.com/ueOi36k0n9
— Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) September 26, 2015
He was later given a general tour through the production area and was seen being briefed by Straubel about the displays, the technology used and the automobiles in the factory.
Ganesh Iyer, Vice President, Information Technology at Tesla Motors, said the company is an ‘extremely’ unique place on planet earth since they indulge in making cars which no other car companies can imagine of.
“I’ve been with Tesla for nearly four years now. This is an extremely unique place on planet earth and we make electric cars that no other car manufacturing companies have made in the world, be it Audi or BMW,” Iyer said.
While waiting for the Prime Minister to finish his guided tour of the company, Musk told the media here that he had discussed with him about ‘electricity generation’ in rural India.
“We only had a few minutes to speak and we are going to speak more after his factory tour. We talked about electricity generation and the fact that arguably there is a way to skip ahead with electricity generation, in the same way that happened with cell phones, particularly in the rural areas. Being able to have solar panels with battery packs means you don’t need electricity lines,” Musk said.
After his tour, Modi had a photo-op moment with the company’s top officials. He also posed for a photograph with the employees, mostly of Indian origin.
Later in the day, the Prime Minister will host a dinner for Silicon Valley CEOs before visiting the offices of Facebook and Google.