Tesla CEO shifts focus to Indonesia after failing India

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is slated to visit Indonesia in November as he wraps up operations of his electric car company in India.

The Indonesian government wants to use its massive nickel reserves to build a world-class electric battery sector, according to IANS. Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo, Indonesia’s president, met Musk over the weekend at SpaceX’s rocket production facility, Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, and asked the world’s richest man to visit Indonesia.

According to the Jakarta Globe, Musk has expressed his interest in Indonesia’s future and believes there is enormous opportunity for SpaceX and Tesla to collaborate in some way. Other variables that have led him to see the Southeast nation through a different lens include its widespread popularity and steady economic progress.

This comes after Union Road Transport and Highway Minister Nitin Gadkari made several pleas to Tesla CEO Elon Musk to come to India and establish production facilities for Tesla cars.

Several state ministers, including Telangana’s KR Rama Rao and Maharashtra’s minister and state NCP president Jayant Patil, have extended open invitations to Musk to build Tesla plants in India, but Musk has declined.