Tesla intends to build plants in Europe, Asia

Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk stated the electric-car maker intends to add factories in Europe and Asia, trying to expand gains by increasing volume of the planned mass-market battery car.

The company this year estimates to make at least 21,000 of its $70,000 Model S premium sedans at its Fremont, California, plant, and double that in the next year. However, as the factory has capacity to produce around 500,000 vehicles a year, Musk noted that the addition of a smaller electric car priced about half that of Model S will require additional plants.

“We’ll try to locate those close to where people are, close to where the customers are, to minimize the logistics costs of getting the car to them,” the Tesla co-founder said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “I think long term you can see Tesla establishing factories in Europe, in other parts of the U.S. and in Asia.” he added.

Companys model S has been awarded 2013 “Car of the Year” by Motor Trend magazine. Consumer Reports in a May review rated it among the best it’s ever tested and on top of all that at the beginning of the week Tesla said it received top crash and safety ratings in tests by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The tests place Tesla model S the safest car ever being tested by the administration.

Musk provided no details on how much or when Tesla would invest in more factories outside the US. The company has opened a small facility in Tilburg, Netherlands, where it’s assembling Model S components shipped from California to Europe, for cars it has begun selling there.

“Certainly, within five years we’ll have our mass-market electric car available,” Musk told Liu, who is also a correspondent for ABC News. “We’ll start seeing hundreds of thousands of electric cars going to market every year.”

The company this month filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office to use the name Model E for an automobile. Tesla spokeswoman, declined to comment on whether that’s intended for the still-unnamed mass-market electric car. The trademark filing was reported Aug. 20 by the website VentureBeat. In an interview at the Fremont factory last month, Musk said building another plant in California would be costly.

“The real tough question is, beyond this plant, would we establish another plant in California?” Musk said in the July interview. “That’s where it gets really tricky. What I can say is we do want to ultimately bring this plant to its original production capacity of half a million vehicles a year.”