It was cold and dark this morning when I woke up.
The alarm on my cellphone showered me with the sounds of a soft vibraphone, because I don’t like to be woken up by loud, grating noises.
I know my grandfather used to wake up to one of those old alarm clocks with the clanging bells. When I would visit, that thing would jolt me out of my sleep and trigger my anxiety a bit.
Of course, my grandfather was a bit of a tough guy.
A career Navy man, he spent most of his deployments on some of the first nuclear subs, sharing bunks with other submariners from the Silent Service who actually slept on top of torpedoes. So I don’t imagine an annoyingly loud alarm clock with bells bothered him much.
In any event, I did drag myself out of bed before sunrise because Thanksgiving is always a busy day, and I wanted to get in a workout and short meditation session before seeing my family for dinner.
Between the stress of family drama and shoveling carb- and fat-heavy eats down my gullet, I at least needed to start off the day with some level of fitness — and I’m glad I did. As I write this, we haven’t even started the actual dinner yet, but we already starting noshing on Vietnamese egg rolls (also known as chả giò) and a bunch of random meats and cheeses from a charcuterie tray I bought from a local cheesemonger who, in my opinion, is the best in the game.
The alcohol started flowing early too, but I’m not much of a drinker. I will, however, smoke a joint with my cousin after the main course. It’s tradition.
Another tradition in my family is listening to my uncle seek out ways to mock my interest in clean energy and electric cars. It’s a relatively new tradition, to be sure.
Last year, he shared a story about an electric car that caught fire in someone’s garage, declaring, “See, these things are dangerous!”
Never mind the fact that, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and the National Transportation Safety Board, for every 100,000 internal combustion vehicles sold in 2020, 1,529 caught on fire. For every 100,000 electric vehicles sold, only 25 caught on fire.
I shared the data with him, but he quickly dismissed it as “left-wing propaganda.”
That’s typically his response anytime his arguments are derailed by data, and honestly, I’ve just come to accept it. After all, what do I care what he thinks about electric cars — especially since the guy barely drives 20 miles per day.
He’s retired now and spends most of his time watching the news and stress eating. I actually feel bad for him. He worked hard all his life but barely has any savings and often relies on me and some other family members to buy him his insulin (he’s diabetic) and boner pills.
My cousin told me we shouldn’t buy the latter for him, but why not? The man deserves to have some fun in his later years. Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s dismissed from spouting off nonsense about electric cars — especially to me, a person who's helped thousands of people become rich by investing in this space.
If you invested in Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) when I wrote about the stock shortly after it went public, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
That one stock literally turned many ordinary investors into millionaires.
But if you didn’t, don’t worry. Because I have two new electric vehicle stock picks that, quite frankly, could make the gains we saw on Tesla look like pocket change.
The first is one I told you about last week.
This is the company that’s about to start production on a $30,000 solar-powered electric car.
While it can still be plugged into an EV charger, it also pulls energy from the sun using solar cells that are integrated into the vehicle itself. So depending on how much you drive, you could quite literally never have to pay for “fuel” again… unless, of course, someone figures out how to charge you for sunlight.
That particular company already has more than 22,000 pre-orders (more than $600 million worth of pre-orders), and they won’t even be ready until next year.
Given the purchase price and solar technology that can power this 5,000-pound vehicle without relying on a drop of gasoline, diesel, or electricity from a power grid, it’s not surprising that so many insiders are calling this thing a Tesla-killer.
Of course, I don’t believe for one second that this solar-powered electric car company will put Tesla out of business, but it will be able to deliver an affordable electric car that will easily rival Tesla on price, thereby giving most average car buyers the opportunity to go electric and on the cheap.
You can read my full analysis on this company here.
The other electric vehicle stock I’m extremely bullish on as we head into 2023 is an electric bus manufacturer.
As I’ve written previously, the low-hanging fruit in the electric vehicle game is municipal bus fleets.
Thanks to electric buses penciling out to be far cheaper to own and operate than traditional internal combustion buses, fleet buyers are abandoning their old diesel-powered buses and placing large orders for electric buses.
As pointed out by Bloomberg, the advance of electric buses will not only exceed the growth rate of electric passenger cars, but in almost all charging configurations, electric buses have a lower total cost of ownership than conventional municipal buses.
Globally, the electric bus market is expected to grow from 78,240 units in 2021 to 1,383,480 units by 2029, representing a CAGR of 43.2% (2022 to 2029).
This is not trivial and is why I’ve been incredibly bullish on electric buses this year — and it’s only going to get better as we head into 2023.
My top pick in this category is a company that’s essentially the only pure play when it comes to producing and selling the buses, charging stations, and battery technology.
In its most recent quarter, the company saw a 27% increase in total revenue ($74.6 million compared with $58.5 million in Q2 2021) and a 93% increase in battery production, delivered 52 new electric buses, and had more than $400 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments.
While I realize there are plenty of folks like my uncle who, for some reason, just want to shit on electric cars at every opportunity, I’m loading up the boat, and you should too.
Because no matter how you slice it, the transition away from internal combustion to vehicle electrification is well underway, and there’s a lot of money up for grabs. You might as well get some of that action for yourself.
To a new way of life and a new generation of wealth… Jeff Siegel
@JeffSiegel on Twitter
Check us out on YouTube!Jeff is the founder and managing editor of Green Chip Stocks. For more on Jeff, go to his editor’s page.
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