Morgan Stanley remains bullish as Tesla’s Elon Musk continues to hold meetings with world leaders trendswire

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Morgan Stanley reiterated an Overweight rating on Tesla (NASDAQ:) with a 12-month price target of $200.00 following company CEO Elon Musk’s accelerated number of meetings with world leaders about future investment opportunities.

The analysts compiled a list of countries with recent headlines from Musk’s meetings with officials, showing goals relevant to industrialization or other factors that make them relevant to Tesla’s supply chain.

Musk recently said he would seriously consider a UK plant, even after he said in 2019 that Brexit made building a Gigafactory too risky.

In May, the chief executive met with French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss “future investment projects.” Macron met with Elon to discuss EU alternatives to the IRA and tax incentives in the US.

There has been an ongoing dialogue between Tesla and the Indian government on import and trade tariffs, as well as the potential for local production. India’s prime minister wanted Tesla to build cars locally rather than Tesla, which wanted to test the market with imports first given low EV sales. More recently, however, India’s deputy technology minister said Tesla is “seriously” about manufacturing plans in India.

The list goes on to include Australia, Vietnam, Thailand, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and many more.

Tesla wants to be twice the size of Toyota (TYO:) or Volkswagen (ETR:) by volume. For this, the company needs a presence in foreign markets. Establishing an automotive presence in foreign markets requires localized production and manufacturing closer to the supply of relevant raw materials and components, analysts say, as “cars don’t ship as easily as phones.”

TSLA shares fell 0.67% in morning trading on Thursday.