When it comes to electric vehicles (EVs), no one holds a candle to Tesla (TSLA +3.14%). Over the past decade, the company has become the world's dominant EV maker and shows no signs of slowing. The recent discovery of documents in the world's second-most populous country shows that Tesla has plans to continue its reign.
On this clip from Motley Fool Live, recorded on Feb. 16, "The Wrap" host Jason Hall and Fool.com contributor Danny Vena discuss the most recent revelation and what it means for Tesla shareholders.
Jason Hall: Danny, let's go ahead and talk about what's going on here with Tesla.
Danny Vena: It seems like every day there's a new headline about Tesla or about Elon Musk, which always gives me a little bit of something to share with folks that may or may not yet be invested in Tesla. If you believe like I do that the electric vehicle market is going to be much larger going forward, right now, Tesla is the biggest game in town.
I saw a note here that said that Tesla is going to begin manufacturing electric vehicles in India. Now, this is something that Musk has talked about for some time now. He's had a couple of tweets where he said, "Yeah, next year for sure." Then he linked a tweet to a blog that talked about electric vehicles being set up in India. His response was "as promised."
Now, they've found some other evidence, apparently there were some government documents from the Indian state of Karnataka in the city of Bengaluru, and I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. But essentially what has happened, there has been a couple of regulatory filings where Tesla has incorporated to fully owned subsidiaries by Energy Private Limited and Tesla Motors India.
In addition to that, in a statement that the government put out, a government document that talks about India's budget and how it's going to benefit that particular local population. The text read, "The U.S. firm Tesla will be opening an electric car manufacturing unit in Karnataka."
I think from an investing standpoint that's important because if you look at what Tesla is doing by setting up a manufacturing and production facility in a country that has a lower per capita income, they're going to be able to produce those cars at a much lower price. In so doing, I think that's going to make them much more attractive to potential electric vehicle buyers in India. They could also potentially export those and export them at a lower cost than what they can produce them elsewhere. I think this is a big deal for Tesla. It's just the next step in Tesla's ongoing mission to dominate the planet with electric vehicles.
Hall: Yeah. They are going to have to spend a lot of capital in a lot of places to live up to expectations. There's no doubt about that. Danny, thanks for sharing. That's cool. Because it's one of those things that's a reminder, SEC filings are great and reading articles, it's helpful. Sometimes you have to find people that go to really extreme lengths, to find documents to help explain what companies might or might not be doing. That's fun, Danny. Thanks for that.
