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The convergence of two technological megatrends could completely transform transportation – and your portfolio
What’s better than one technological megatrend? Two of them.
If you look at the stock market’s biggest winners over the past 30 years, they all have one thing in common. They thrived at the epicenter of two technological megatrends.
When the internet met the smartphone, we got Apple (AAPL) – a $2.6 trillion internet-capable phone giant that made its early shareholders filthy rich.
When computer hardware met software, we got Microsoft (MSFT) – a $2 trillion computing giant that has made its long-term shareholders filthy rich, too.
And when e-commerce met the cloud, we got Amazon (AMZN) – a $1.4 trillion tech giant that has also made its shareholders filthy rich.
Indeed, investing in leading firms poised to thrive at the epicenter of two technological megatrends can make you rich.
Today, we’re witnessing another convergence of two technological megatrends. And it is undoubtedly going to produce some enormous stock market winners.
I’m talking about the convergence of solar and electric vehicle technology.
The world’s transportation sector is being electrified. It went from nothing to accounting for 10% of all new car sales in 2021. Now consider favorable shifts in legislation, improving battery technology, falling battery costs, and expanding EV production and availability. That means the portion of EVs on the road will likely rise to over 50% by 2030.
Simultaneously, the world’s energy grid is being decarbonized. Over the past 10 years, solar has consistently accounted for the largest share of new energy production capacity additions every single year. Today, about 3% of the U.S.’ total power comes from solar panels. Most analysts believe that number will rise to 50%-plus by the 2030s.
EVs and solar are two of the most promising technological megatrends in the world today.
An EV battery isn’t an energy source – it’s a store of energy. That is, an EV battery doesn’t produce energy. It takes it from somewhere else, stores it, and then deploys it when needed. That “somewhere else” is often the energy grid. When an EV plugs into a charger, it pulls power from the grid to store and deploy when driving.
Therefore, EVs aren’t powered by batteries. They are powered by the grid. In the U.S., about 60% of the grid is powered by fossil fuels. The other 40% is split roughly in half between renewable energy and nuclear energy.
To that end, it reasons that with the current energy grid, about 60% of electric vehicles in the U.S. these days are actually powered by fossil fuels.
Seems counterintuitive, right? It is – entirely so. The primary purpose of an EV is to decarbonize the transportation sector. It can’t do that if it’s drawing power from a fossil-fuel-powered energy grid.
This is where solar comes into play.
By providing an alternative energy source for EV batteries to draw power from, solar power is the perfect complement to EVs. Indeed, one could say that the EV Revolution is only “half-baked” without solar power. You need solar and EVs to come together to truly create a global energy transition.
It’s a perfect marriage.
And over the past few weeks, we’ve noticed a significant acceleration in business developments related to this marriage.
There are three solar-EV executions that excite us most: solar cars, solar canopy EV chargers, and solar roads.
The first involves creating flexible solar panels to be installed seamlessly onto an electric vehicle’s frame, so that the car is constantly charging. The second involves adding tree-like structures to EV charging stations. The canopy of the “tree” comprises solar panels so that the EV charger is constantly pulling power from the panels. The third involves creating roads made of solar panels that constantly transmit their power to the electric vehicles driving on them.
All three ideas might sound like science fiction. But they aren’t. They are realities emerging in our world right now.
Just two days ago, EV startup Aptera debuted a full prototype of its signature solar electric vehicle at the Fully Charged Live conference in San Diego. It’s a spaceship-looking vehicle straight out of The Jetsons. It’s uniquely designed to have the lowest drag coefficient of any passenger car in the market (so it resembles a race car). Of course, the signature feature is the seamless integration of 700 Watts of solar power on every car. It’s so seamlessly integrated that you’d ask, wait. Where are the solar panels?
Those 700 Watts of solar power provide drivers up to 40 miles per day of free driving powered by the sun. When coupled with charging and a battery, Aptera solar cars deliver up to 1,000 miles of driving range.
Meanwhile, also just days ago, another EV startup by the name of SolarBotanic debuted its EV charging “trees.” These are EV chargers with a tree-like canopy made of monocrystalline solar cells with an efficiency of up to 24%. Those cells produce power. They feed it into the charger. And when someone charges their EV at the tree, it pulls power from the solar tree and not the grid.
It’s a genius innovation. And it’s coming soon to a parking lot near you. SolarBotanic plans to start selling these systems in 2023.
Then there’s the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which is working with the Ohio Turnpike and Utah State University on a pilot project to electrify part of the highway.
Within the next 18 months, the trio expect to demonstrate the ability to turn a turnpike parking space into a charging station. Subsequently, they will turn big chunks of the road into solar-powered charging stations. And they’ll create a highway where electric vehicles charge while driving!
The marriage of solar and electric vehicle technology isn’t just theoretically promising. It’s a reality that is emerging right now.
Sure, most of these hybrid technologies – solar cars, solar tree chargers, and solar roads – are nascent. But that’s when you want to invest – when the technology is just being introduced to the world.
Imagine buying Amazon stock in 2001, as its e-commerce website was just starting to gain traction. Or Apple stock in early 2007, when it announced the first iPhone. It’s like buying Netflix (NFLX) stock in 2012, when the company split apart its streaming business and bet the firm’s future on streaming TV.
We think similar millionaire-making investments could present themselves in the solar electric vehicle industry.
The emergence of innovative products in the overlap of solar and electric vehicle technologies is a microcosm of a much bigger trend. And that’s the reimagination of our modern transportation sector.
The world’s entire multi-trillion-dollar transportation market is about to be completely transformed. Everything about it will change. And solar cars are one of the most promising leads.
And we have the perfect pick to play this multi-trillion-dollar Transportation 2.0 Revolution.
It’s a tiny stock pioneering perhaps the most important technological breakthrough in this revolution. And it could potentially sign a deal with the world’s biggest company any day now.
As the world continues on its path of EV and solar innovation, this stock could soar 40X in the next few years alone. You don’t want to miss out.
On the date of publication, Luke Lango did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.
By uncovering early investments in hypergrowth industries, Luke Lango puts you on the ground-floor of world-changing megatrends.
Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/hypergrowthinvesting/2022/09/let-solar-cars-drive-you-to-wealth/.
©2022 InvestorPlace Media, LLC
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