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Originally Posted by mvadg |
This report is false, and so is their claim that he has refused to comment on subsidies/grants from the US Government. There are multiple videos on YouTube where he speaks about these. There are tax breaks that will be realised over 20 years, and a land grant for the Gigafactory, but no cash payout. This is also a normal process any private company does in the US when making a huge investment - US states actually bid (in the form of land grants and tax breaks) for such investment as it generates local jobs (part of the deal) and helps develop infrastructure.
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Originally Posted by tsk1979 India has primarily evolved to be a "dalal" economy. |
Completely agree, and there is in my opinion a very simple reason for this (at the end of my post) that I heard an industrialist talk about when comparing business in India with countries like US and even China.
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Originally Posted by Rehaan The way i see it, this is the formula: Elon Musk = Money + Brilliance + Execution + Publicity |
You missed Vision. This is not just a brilliant idea, but a brilliant, world changing (positively) idea. Listen to some interviews of Elon (lonish ones, 44+ minutes) where he talks about the areas that he felt needed innovation to change humanity. He then removed the ones that may have a negative impact (such as genetic-modification), and then focussed on the ones that he felt would have an entirely positive impact.
And as mentioned in the article posted, he has a drive and commitment that goes beyond money.
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Originally Posted by Beco Is the idea of Tesla car in India really feasible? |
Not just feasible, necessary. Tesla is a company, the Model S is niche anywhere in the world, but a 10-15L car that is spacious, looks good (not goofy), rides and handles well and most importantly has at least 250kms of range would be well accepted in India. We then
only have the problem of recharge points at gaps of 200-250 kms with quick-charging to enable long distance travel because cars at that price in India would be the family's one multi-purpose car.
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Originally Posted by r.joshi Their product didn't make it to the markets, reason being under-developed, lack of R&D and not being cost effective. http://Youtu.be/dzXZhVEHhmg |
Their product was priced so high because they didn't go into manufacturing on scale. That becomes a financing issue, which is where Angel investors come into the picture, or didn't in this case.
One of the things that Elon Musk says is that one should approach electric vehicles as completely new vehicles, and they should be designed and built as such from the ground up. That needs investment in research, design and then manufacturing facilities to scale.
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Originally Posted by rajshenoy What Mr Musk did, Mr Maini too did with limited resources and the great support from our govt policies. To me that is a greater achievement. |
Agree, that was an achievement in India. Kudos to Mahindra for keeping the vehicle alive, but they need to do more, IMHO.
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Originally Posted by Samurai Most entrepreneurs land in debts and they are constantly battling to keep their nose above the water by making sacrifices.
I didn't realise it was a satire until you named Americans as a race. You probably know all humans come from the San tribe of North Africa. We are just one race.
What is common to us is the business environment. Change the business environment and you'll see things changing.
The Elon Musk concept is about betting on a cutting edge technology, convincing investors to fund it with no ROI in sight, and then inspire a whole generation to look up and dream big. |
Agree with the above.
As mentioned earlier, there is too much red-tape in India. Businesses have to prove that they are doing everything per the book rather than being required to be transparent and assumed to comply. There is also a problem with the legal requirements being too specific, and anything not specified being assumed to be illegal.
Take Uber for an example. It was banned when the government faced a problem, and then only when the specific type of taxi/transport provider was included in the list was it allowed to re-start. Wouldn't it be easier to have a broad category of local/intra-state and inter-state transport, and then define tax and safety requirements based on that?
I've never been in business, but in an interview with some industrialists a while ago I heard that in China, single-window means one application on the right form. One gets a list of regulatory compliance requirements, and inspectors come regularly to confirm that one is compliant. In India (as the interviewee said), the government requires that one prove that one is compliant at every stage, and there are grey or hidden items that one may not even know about and may be found to be non-compliant years later and be fined retrospectively.
There is also a backbone of corruption that supports this system. Catching people out and extracting money is income. Allowing them to work and confirming that they are compliant is work for the "powers that be" who want power and money, but no work or responsibility.
Elon Musk also took on established players, traditional business (car dealers in the franchise model), and has been successful IMHO only because he got the right support (financially from private players) at the right time. He invested $160million of his own money (from the PayPal sale) in SpaceX, Tesla and SolarCity because he was committed to the vision and ready to be broke if it failed. There are a few Indians I know who also gamble big on their dreams, and have had mixed success. I don't believe there is any shortage of entrepreneurs in India, we just need the right environment.