Baseball Superstar Shohei Ohtani Drives A Tesla; Could That Help The Company In Japan?

One player making major waves in Major League Baseball in 2021 is Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels. Not since Babe Ruth has an MLB player had as strong of stats as both a pitcher and hitter as Ohtani is doing in 2021.

Ohtani could soon capture the eyes of investors as he owns a Tesla Inc TSLA vehicle as his first car.

What Happened: Ohtani obtained a U.S. driver's license in the offseason and was seen driving a Tesla to Spring Training. He didn't have a license in Japan because of the process being more expensive and taking longer to complete.

“Major league sensation #ShoheiOhtani chose #ModelX as his first car! Good choice, Shohei,” Hiromichi Mizuno tweeted with a video recently. Mizuno is a member of the Tesla Board of Directors, joining in 2020.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to the post with a heart emoji and the Japanese flag emoji.

Ohtani has owned the vehicle for months but the story could get more airtime now with the tweet and response from Musk. Also add in the MLB All-Star Game, which will feature Ohtani as one of the big storylines.

Related Link: Double Your Money If Shohei Ohtani Wins The American League MVP

Why It’s Important: Mizuno came to Tesla with experience in finance in investment across several countries including Japan.

Japan is the fourth largest automotive market but remains one that Tesla has struggled with. Some problems cited are the Model S and Model X being too large for parking structures in Japan and also the cost of the vehicles.

Tesla prices have come down in Japan with the new Gigafactory Shanghai in China helping to lower costs as the vehicles were previously shipped from California.

Sales of Tesla vehicles in Japan were up 1,300% in the month of March 2021 over the prior year. Delivery times for the Tesla Model 3 have increased due to demand according to Bloomberg with times now listed at 12 to 16 weeks compared to the normal 6 to 8 weeks.

Telsa sold less than 2,000 units in Japan in all of 2020. The company has been selling vehicles in Japan for six years and Musk once called the country one of the most important for Tesla.

Ohtani Could Help: Ohtani is one of the most popular players in baseball and bringing fans of the sport from his native Japan to view games of the Angels.

A 2019 poll by Nikkei Research found that only half of the people polled in Japan had heard of Tesla. For comparison, 98% of those polled had heard of Nissan.

Ohtani is now favored to win the AL MVP at odds of -275 on DraftKings Inc DKNG. Ohtani was a top vote getter for the MLB All-Star Game.

Ohtani leads the American League in home runs (32), triples (4) and slugging percentage (.700). Ohtani also has a 4-1 record pitching with an ERA of 3.49 and WHIP of 1.21. Ohtnai has 87 strikeouts in 67 innings pitches across 13 games.

Tesla could highlight Ohtani as a user of the vehicle. While the company has shied away from doing commercials and advertisements before, Ohtani could be the perfect spokesman to get Tesla more popular in Japan.

Photo credit: hj_west, Flickr