As a Gen X-er I remember while joining the workforce decades back, a common advice received from the more experienced and elderly was – “don’t discuss politics or religion at work”. Today however, nothing, well almost nothing, appears in the fine print that would tell you, even if in mild suggestive manner – things we are not recommended to do in an office space. You might wonder what does this have to do with the topic of this post. More than you might think actually.
Indian H1-B Dreams
When I went to college in Mumbai (then Bombay) way back in the late 90s, like many other middle-class Indian kids growing up in urban and non-urban centres in the country, every family had a story of an American dream that had been realised by someone they knew, someone known to someone they knew, or someone from their own family. The story about Indians seeing professional success in the USA was also validated by some Indians who created world class brands. One such American Indian who got me all dreamy eyed was Amar Bose a professor of psychoacoustics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and founder of the revolutionary Bose speakers. The story of Bose really hit home because not only he was the son of Indian and European immigrants to the US, but his father’s roots were also from the state of Bengal in India like mine. Then there were more contemporary stories of American Indians like Sabeer Bhatia who created the world’s first free email application called Hotmail (it was my first email account, what is now called Outlook) or Norah Jones, daughter of Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar and a great artist in her own rights. And the list goes on and on. And then, something happened.
Dream to Nightmare?
With the advent of social media and narrative led politics all around the world there were some unintended consequences which may have more affect to brand perceptions than business analysts or shareholders would probably worry about. When stories of deported illegal Indian migrants to the States started appearing in the news, most people of Indian origin were not surprised by the fact that there would be some desperate souls among millions who would take such drastic measures to reach the US. However, as this BBC report suggests – many Indians felt that the humiliating manner in which they were returned home in handcuffs and shackles was more about sending a message openly to the wider population. To many aspiring H1-B visa holders, this looked like a red flag of sort to the American Dream.
Musk and his Unmasked Support for MAGA
A recent study by Centre for the Study of Organised Hate explains how unfiltered anti-Indian racism is so widespread on X. You can read the publication here. Back in the old days, people would not completely associate the CEO of an organisation, Elon Musk in this case, with any grievances they have against the organisation, which is X in this case. But in recent times, the rules of the game have changed so drastically we can see things play out differently. Musk, by heading the controversial organisation DOGE and associating himself directly with the White House and Donald Trump may have crossed that line I mentioned earlier – he is mixing politics with work in a way no other business or tech tycoon has done in the past. He has also been accused of openly interfering with several governments in Europe. As much as he may want, he would not be able to disassociate himself or his actions from the companies or brands he leads like Tesla, X, Starlink and Space X. Much of the recent anti-Indian immigrant rhetoric in the US is associated with the MAGA supporters of Donald Trump as this report on Al Jazeera suggests. One of Musk’s brands to take the biggest hits for his open support for Donald Trump is Tesla. This report on CNBC suggest Tesla sales in Europe has taken almost a 50% beating due to Musk’s direct association with politics or serving politicians.
Tesla’s Embarrassing Report Card in India
For a company that boasts 1.35 Trillion US$ market capitalisation as of today and shareholders promising the CEO a trillion dollar future pay package, selling a mere 100 cars since its rather underwhelming launch in India is more than embarrassing. As much as some reports may suggest that this may be due to slow EV adoption in India or lack of proper charging infrastructure, to me it looks like a case of a failing Brand America. Although EV adoption in India is sluggish at around 3% of the total fleet, being the world’s fourth largest vehicle producer in absolute terms even 3% would be equivalent to the entire fleet of a smaller country. As per the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, roughly 4 million passenger cars have been sold annually for the past few years. As per this report 156,455 fully electric vehicles were sold in 2025 year-to-date. Even though a large part of the EV deliveries belong to the less expensive and mass market options provided by the likes of local brands like Tata and Mahindra or other volume brands like MG or Hyundai, luxury brands like BMW and Mercedes Benz have recorded tremendous growth in India’s EV segment. BMW’s milestone of reaching 5000 EV sales by the end of the third quarter completely dwarfs Tesla’s 100 vehicle delivery. For context, Tesla recorded 1212 Model Y deliveries in New Zealand year-to-date and 169 sales in November alone. Comparatively, New Zealand’s total EV sales at the end of November is around 7000 vehicles.
Summary
By relating Tesla’s abysmal half yearly performance in India solely to local market conditions would be a bit like a baby elephant hiding behind a tree thinking no one can see it. Tesla Global and it’s India team needs to do some serious soul searching and come up with a plan that would make India’s gadget crazy, somewhat sentimental and highly aspirational middle class see a Tesla making room in their family photo albums. If I may borrow a Maya Angelou quote from my better half – “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”.
Sources:
BBC – https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdrn00pn1m7o , https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgkj2yw122o
Al Jazeera – https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/9/29/cruel-joke-how-indian-h-1b-dreams-are-crash-landing-after-trump-fee-hike , https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/2/1/how-maga-fell-out-with-indian-tech-bros
The Guardian – https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/23/trump-musk-doge-reportedly-disbanded
Politico – https://www.politico.eu/article/elon-musk-politics-uk-republicans-x-owner-donald-trump-prison/
CSOHate – https://www.csohate.org/2025/09/16/anti-indian-racism-on-x-july-september-2025/
The Interpreter – https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/india-s-diaspora-far-right-crosshairs
Business Insider – https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-fired-staff-india-dozen-employees-left-report-2022-11
Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers – https://www.siam.in/statistics.aspx?mpgid=8&pgidtrail=14
Electrive – https://www.electrive.com/2025/11/28/india-annual-ev-sales-surpass-two-million-units-setting-a-new-record/
EVDB NZ – https://evdb.nz/ev-stats
Bose Corporation – https://www.bose.com/about
Leave a comment