Gary Zhou 
Elon Musk has teased the potential for Tesla to soon expand into Russia and even maybe establish a factory in the region.
Russia is far from being a leader in electrification and it doesn’t have much prospects to accelerate EV adoption.
Tesla’s entry in the market could definitely help.
The country is already one of, if not, the biggest gray market for Tesla vehicles.
Gray markets emerge when a product is not officially sold by a manufacturer in specific markets.
For Tesla vehicles, support from the manufacturer is really important.
Things as simple as service and parts, but Tesla’s features like Autopilot often require some market-specific development.
Nonetheless, some adventurous drivers have been willing to go through the process of importing their own cars into markets where Tesla has yet to enter.
This has been the case for a long time in Russia where there were an estimated 500 privately imported Tesla vehicles in the country as of last year and the number was estimated to more than double last year.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hinted at a possible official entry in the market and now the CEO says that the automaker is “close to establishing a Tesla presence in Russia”:
The comment was made during a video conference in Russia during which the CEO also reportedly teased potentially establishing a factory in the region.
Tesla already has or it is currently building manufacturing operations in the US, Germany, and China, but the automaker has recently been rumored to be looking for a new factory location.
The automaker has made clear that in order to fulfill its ambitious growth target, it would need more factories and especially more battery cell factories.
Since Musk’s new comment, several Russian officials have reached out to the CEO in order to offer their help in finding a potential factory location in the country.
As for Tesla establishing a sale and service presence in the country, the automaker has already announced rough locations for its first Russian Supercharger connecting St-Petersburg and Moscow to Tesla’s European Supercharger network.
Opening Supercharger stations are generally Tesla’s first steps in entering a new market.
