PM Narendra Modi pays visit to Tesla Motors

SAN JOSE (CALIFORNIA): With renewable and alternative sources of energy high on his priority list, Prime Minster Narendra Modi on Saturday paid a visit to the headquarters of Tesla Motors at Pao Alto to get a feel on what could drive the automobiles in the future.

Soon after his arrival here and an interaction with the Indian-American community, the prime minister left for the facility of Tesla that was was founded in 2003 by a group of engineers who wanted to prove that electric cars can be better than gasoline-powered cars.

Modi, who had landed at the Norman Y. Minte San Jose International Airport, was driven around the facility in a battery-powered cart after which he also posed for some photos standing next to a gleaming red car manufactured by the company with chief executive Elon Musk.

"Prime Minister Modi and I talked about electricity generation and how there are ways to skip ahead with it as with cellphones," Musk, the company's principal engineer, inventor and investor, said later.