Not owning Tesla stock is the greater risk ahead of massive infrastructure package, Morgan Stanley says

• Morgan Stanley said Tesla will have a huge advantage ahead of President Biden’s infrastructure bill.

• Biden’s $2 trillion proposal carved out $174 billion for the electric vehicle sector alone.

• If this passes, the bank said this would exacerbate Tesla’s advantage over other players.

• See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Among the companies that stand at an advantage ahead of President Joe Biden’s massive infrastructure bill is Tesla, according to Morgan Stanley analysts, and owning the stock they say may be a bigger risk than not.

Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure proposal carved out $174 billion for the electric vehicle sector alone, as the president aims to better equip American companies to compete with China, which is currently the market leader in the electric vehicle space.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley led by Adam Jones said in a note published Wednesday that Biden’s bill will increase Tesla’s advantage over legacy players and new entrants altogether.

The policy used to accelerate sales of electric vehicles will slow sales of internal combustion engine cars, the analysts said.

The analysts did warn that the build-out may follow a volatile and non-linear path.

“It will likely be complicated by a labyrinth of national and local laws that will present advantages and disadvantages to various automakers, depending on the year that you choose to analyze,” they said. “Put it all together and we believe auto investors face greater risk not owning Tesla shares in their portfolio than owning Tesla shares.”

The electric carmaker last week revealed that 184,800 vehicles were delivered and 180,338 cars were produced for the first three months of 2021, despite major production and supply-chain headwinds. Tesla in the final quarter of last year delivered 180,570 cars.

Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said the first-quarter results were a “paradigm changer” and show that the global pent-up demand for Tesla’s Model 3 and Y is just about to hit its next stage of growth.

The strong start of the year for the company proved that founder Elon Musk’s efforts to shore up global operations in Europe and China are paying off.