• Tesla (TLSA): The popular electric vehicle (EV) company now sports a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion.
• ChargePoint (CHPT): The U.S. will have a half a million public EV charging stations by 2030.
• MP Materials (MP): Investors are shaking off a critical short report in the mining company.

What kind of investor are you? The question matters, particularly if you’re interested these days in electric vehicle stocks.

If you’re an investor with a short time window, then EV stocks are particularly challenging right now. Technology stocks and other growth names have been down this year as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates and makes growth names less appealing.

Then there’s the semiconductor chip shortage. Semiconductor chips became hard to come by during the Covid-19 pandemic and the supply and demand still hasn’t righted itself. EVs require thousands of semiconductor chips, so the shortage makes building the vehicles more complicated and expensive.

But if you’re more of a buy-and-hold investor, then electric vehicle stocks are a little more appealing. EVs are certainly the way of the future, with the U.S., Europe and China all encouraging drivers to opt out of gasoline vehicles. And since many EV and tech names are depressed these days, long-term investors can find electric vehicle stocks at bargain prices.

As we roll through April, this is a good time to look at three EV stocks to buy. We’ll look at one from three different segments — a vehicle manufacturer, a charging station stock and a mining stock. All will play a role in the EV story moving forward.

Tesla (TSLA)

There are plenty of reasons to think that Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) will do well for the remainder of the year.

First, Tesla launched its Austin Gigafactory last week, making the fourth production point for Tesla’s popular electric vehicles. And just a few weeks ago, it opened the doors of its Gigafactory in Germany.

And the company also made news recently when it announced that it’s looking to split Tesla stock for the second time in two years. The split would be in the form of a dividend that would pay shares, instead of cash, to investors of record.

Stock splits are a cash cow for investors and Wall Street really ate up the last split of TSLA stock. It performed a 5-for-1 split in 2020, and already the stock is almost over $1,000 per share. Tesla stock is up nearly 1,500% in the last five years.

In the fourth quarter, TSLA reported earnings of $17.72 billion, easily beating analysts’ expectations for $16.64 billion. Earnings were $2.54 per share, which was better than the expected $2.38 per share.

ChargePoint Holdings (CHPT)

ChargePoint Holdings (NYSE:CHPT) stock is down 17% so far this year, but that’s really a misleading number. Since hitting bottom in late January, ChargePoint rallied to gain more than 30% in the last 10 weeks.

ChargePoint is in the business of EV charging networks and charging solutions around the world. It reported having 174,000 charging stations in January. Revenue in 2021 was up 65% on a year-over-year basis to $242.3 million. And the company guided for 2022 revenue of between $450 million to $500 million.

One of the biggest reasons to like ChargePoint is the $5 billion that the Biden administration approved to spend over the next five years to create a nationwide network of EV charging stations. With the plan calling new or upgraded charging stations every 50 miles on the nation’s interstate highways system, the network will be critical to the White House’s goal of having 500,000 public charging stations in place by 2030.

MP Materials (MP)

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) is a rare earth company that operates the Mountain Pass mine in California. It has the distinction of operating the only scaled rare earth mining and processing facility in the Western Hemisphere.

MP stock makes this list of electric vehicle stocks to buy because it’s an important raw material supplier for EV markets, according to Bank of America analyst Lawson Winder.

The stock dipped in early February when Bonitas Research issued a short report that was critical of the company. According to the report, the company’s value has been inflated by Shenghe Resources, which is a publicly traded company in China that owns an 8% stake in MP Materials.

But investors have shrugged off that report, sending MP stock up more than 30% since the critical report went public.

MP Materials issued fourth-quarter earnings of $99.11 million, beating analysts’ expectations for $98.47 million. Earnings were 31 cents per share, also beating expectations of 23 cents per share.

On the date of publication, Patrick Sanders was long TSLA. He did not have (either directly or indirectly) any other positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.