The U.S. President does not support Tesla building cars in India, the world's third-largest car market. Foreign brands, however, only compete for about a third of overall demand—and total EV sales are vestigial, growing to just 100,000 vehicles last year.

Trump called out India's high duty on cars during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the U.S. last week, but agreed to work towards an early trade deal and resolve their standoff over tariffs. Tesla's CEO Elon Musk has long criticised India for having import tariffs of around 100% on EVs which protect local automakers such as Tata Motors in the world's third largest auto market,