Days after US President Donald Trump’s right-hand man met with India’s premier, the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, owned by tycoon Elon Musk, started hiring in India.
On its website, Tesla has more than a dozen job openings, including for store managers and service technicians, in both the capital city of New Delhi and the commercial center of Mumbai.
LinkedIn, an employment website, published the job postings on Monday.
Tesla’s India push comes after Musk met one-on-one with Prime Minister Narenda Modi in Washington, raising questions over whether the world’s richest man was meeting the Indian leader in an official or business capacity.
Musk has been seeking business opportunities in the world’s most populous nation, with media reports last year suggesting it was scouting for factory and showroom locations.
Musk has also sought to open his satellite internet service Starlink in India, with communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in November saying the company would be allowed to operate if it complies with “security” regulations.
There have been intense policy discussions and purported national security concerns surrounding the possible launch of Starlink, a network of low Earth orbit satellites that might bring internet to isolated and distant areas, in the most populated nation in the world.
According to Musk, he had “very heavy Tesla obligations” that caused him to postpone his 2024 trip to India, when he was supposed to reveal significant investment plans.
Even though India’s EV market is tiny, it still offers Tesla, which is struggling with growing competition from China and its first yearly decline in EV sales, a chance to expand.
India has long had steep import taxes for electric vehicles — Musk once complained they were among the “highest in the world” — which had prevented Tesla from making inroads in the absence of local manufacturing.
But India last year cut import taxes on electric vehicles for global automakers that committed to invest $500 million and start local production within three years.
New Delhi had had offered quick tariff concessions ahead of Modi’s Washington visit, including slashing duties on high-end motorcycles — a boost to Harley-Davidson, the iconic US manufacturer whose struggles in India have irked Trump.
India has also already accepted three US military flights carrying more than 300 migrants as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
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