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

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

Analysts compiled a list of countries with recent headlines of Musk meeting with officials, exhibiting relevant goals for industrializing or other factors making them relevant for Tesla's supply chain.

Musk said recently that he would strongly consider a plant in the U.K. Even after he said in 2019 that Brexit made building a Gigafactory too risky.

Back in May, the CEO 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 U.S.

There has been ongoing dialogue between Tesla and India’s government concerning trade and import tariffs, as well as the potential for local production. India’s prime minister wanted Tesla to make cars locally versus Tesla who wanted to test the market with imports first given low EV sales. More recently though, India’s deputy minister of technology said Tesla is “serious” about plans for manufacturing in India.

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

Tesla wants to be 2x the size of Toyota (TYO:7203) or Volkswagen (ETR:VOWG) by volume. To do that, the company needs a presence in foreign markets. According to analysts, establishing an auto presence in foreign markets requires localized production, and manufacturing closer to the supply of the relevant raw materials and components, as “Cars don’t ship as easily as phones.”

Shares of TSLA are down 0.67% in morning trading on Thursday.