Elon Musk once praised Ratan Tata as 'a gentleman and a scholar', here's why

An old interview that is resurfacing on the internet has caught people’s eye. In this, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is seen praising Ratan Tata as a “gentleman and a scholar”. This interview of Musk is from 2009 when he was talking with American journalist Charlie Rose about Ratan Tata’s pet project.

The pet project is none other than the Tata Nano car. In that interview, Charlie asked Musk’s views on the car which is a low-budget car as cheap as Rs 1 lakh introduced by Ratan Tata-led Tata Motors.

Musk said that it is a great idea, but he also expressed his doubts on its long-term viability. He said, “I think it's a good idea to have affordable cars, but I think the problem with something like the Nano, I wouldn't say problem because I think, by the way, it is probably a great idea and Ratan is a gentleman and scholar, but where it’s going to become challenging is in the future is when the price of petrol rises, the cost of buying the car is much less of an issue than the cost of running the car.”

He fulfilled his promise to build the world's cheapest car.

- Ratan Tata wanted to build a car, which the middle class of India could afford and so he delivered on his promise and launched Tata Nano for just $1,200 (₹1 lakh) in 2008.

- @ElonMusk also shared his views on the… pic.twitter.com/QqTY5KuQLK

— Nico Garcia (@nicogarcia) August 26, 2024

When Tata Nano was launched in 2009, it clearly made headlines everywhere, not just in India but even in other countries but didn’t do as per Ratan Tata’s plan and failed eventually. Rather than accepting it as an affordable car, people rejected it for being too cheap. It was eventually discontinued in 2018.