According to a Wall Street Journal report, Tesla (TSLA) is considering setting up a manufacturing plant in Russia. Tesla makes electric cars and has four models on the market.
The company currently has manufacturing sites in the U.S. and China but wants to open production sites in other parts of the world, and Russia is seriously under consideration.
“I think we are close to establishing a Tesla presence in Russia,” said CEO Elon Musk at a Kremlin-sponsored educational event.
There are 700 Tesla cars registered in Russia, representing 6% of the 11,000 electric cars registered in the country as of the beginning of 2021.
Although the Russian electric car market is currently small, it is expanding rapidly. Bolstered by the elimination of import taxes, the number of electric cars registered in the country has increased 71% over the past year, according to Autostat data.
Russia lacks a major homegrown electric car maker. Nissan currently has the lead with about 9,000 units of its Nissan Leaf model registered in the country.
A major obstacle to electric car uptake in Russia is limited charging infrastructure, as there are only about 400 charging stations in the country. In addition to Russia, Tesla is also considering setting up a production site in Kazakhstan. (See Tesla stock analysis on TipRanks)
Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas maintained a Buy rating with a price target of $900 on Tesla stock. Jonas’ price target suggests 54.94% upside potential.
“We believe the pullback provides an emerging opportunity for investors to increase exposure to Tesla,” noted Jonas.
Consensus among analysts on Wall Street is a Hold based on 10 Buy, 7 Hold, and 7 Sell ratings. The average analyst price target of $648.30 implies 11.61% upside potential to current levels.
TSLA scores a 7 out of 10 on TipRanks’ Smart Score rating system, indicating that the stock’s returns are likely to align with the market's performance.
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