Tesla Drives Indian Retail Investors Into A Frenzy Ahead Of Planned Expansion

Tesla Inc. TSLA is receiving a tremendous amount of interest from retail investors in India, a country where the electric vehicle maker doesn’t yet have a presence, Reuters reported Wednesday.

What Happened: Vested Finance, a local brokerage firm, told the newswire that accounts on its platform held $2.5 million worth of Tesla shares in November, up 31.9% from March-end’s $76,000.

Fellow Indian brokerage, Stockal saw Tesla shares in its accounts jump about 400% to $10 million in a similar period.

Vested CEO Viram Shah told Reuters that several of its customers have created accounts just “to be able to invest in Tesla.”

Why It Matters: The Elon Musk-led EV maker is emerging as a favorite for the Indian investors above Apple AAPL, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, and Facebook Inc. FB.

Apple, Amazon, and Facebook all have a massive presence across India and are familiar brands in the country.

Tesla doesn’t yet sell its electric vehicles in India or have a manufacturing facility but, unsurprisingly, Musk is a subject of high media interest in the country.

Musk said in a tweet in October that Tesla would enter the Indian market "next year for sure."

Two state governments in India, representing Maharashtra and Karnataka, are each attempting to woo the EV maker to establish a manufacturing facility in their jurisdiction, as per local media reports.

The Palo Alto-based company is also reportedly considering establishing a research center in Bengaluru, India’s primary tech hub that already hosts several prominent global tech giants.

Price Action: Tesla shares traded 0.57% lower at $646.20 in the after-hours session Tuesday.

See Also: Tesla Giga Berlin Faces Further Delay Over Hibernating Snakes

Click here to check out Benzinga's EV Hub for the latest electric vehicles news.