Welcome to The Commute, the series where I randomly pick a topic before I start my commute to wherever I am going and we talk about it for a bit.
For today, we talk through electric vehicles. We look at it as a consumer and investor, talking through the highlights of each. We also talk about the exciting but incredibly different future that EVs and autonomous vehicles may bring.
Welcome to The Commute, the series where I randomly pick a topic before I start my commute to wherever I am going and we talk about it for a bit.
For today, we talk through electric vehicles. We look at it as a consumer and investor, talking through the highlights of each. We also talk about the exciting but incredibly different future that EVs and autonomous vehicles may bring.
Hey guys, welcome to the commute, the new project that I've talked about and the podcast and the newsletter that I'm going to send out. And really what it is just a break it down on here as well quickly is it's going to be exactly this, it's just gonna be me, on my way to work from work, going to the store, wherever it may be, when I'm in my car, I'm just gonna set up the camera like I have it now, I'm just going to talk about whatever I see on my phone just before I start driving, whether it's finance related or life related, sports related, whatever it may be. So I'm just gonna take the time I'm driving to talk through that. I'm super excited to share it because I'm excited for the spontaneous part of it, where whatever I see on my phone, right before that, I think, yeah, I could talk about this for a little bit, his home in a structure. And so I'm excited for that aspect of it. So scrolling through my phone, just before I got in my car here started driving, and the first thing I saw, and I think it is something that is fitting for the first episode or something like this is electric cars. As an industry, where do I see them going from a consumer standpoint, and investing standpoint? And what that future looks like? So yesterday, and today, I was reading through some articles. And I'm a big, big fan of Apple, you may be asking about electric cars, what does Apple have to do with anything? Well, they actually have a pretty big it's a secret project. But it's right now it's speculation, I guess. But it's pretty much well known that they have the Titan project inside their headquarters. That is their entrance into the electric car space. And over the past day, it seems as if that has taken a major hit as a project going forward, because what happened was Ford went head and poached apples, one of their topics acts on that project. And so this, this individual Douglas, I forget his last name. But so he worked on Tesla when they were starting the model three. And then he worked with Apple in the last couple of years when they are getting their like their car project up and running behind closed doors. And now Ford who has been very forward and very upfront about their ambitions to move into the electric car space with the Mustang Maki, before f 150. That they made electric. And they plan on doing so for a couple of their cars going forward and expanding that. So them in there, the idea that they can go ahead and get this topic, Zach from Apple, is a pretty big deal in that space, it's gonna help them a lot with regards to being able to make some noise. And so where do I see all this as a consumer? Where do I see the electric car space? am I excited about it? What do I think it means for the industry now I'm super excited about as a consumer, I think there's going hand in hand with what cars means autonomous vehicles, because the technology's in there. And it can do that, like Tesla, we see a Tesla now they're trying to test that out waymo with Google and other companies. So as a consumer, the electric car space and autonomous driving, I think it's gonna be the coolest thing ever. I don't think on the east coast. It's as realistic right now, because of the infrastructure that's built out with regards to the charging ports, there's not many charging ports, when you're driving around on the east coast. I mean, obviously, you can get a set up in your house. But I've only ever seen a handful driving up and down the coast and around town of those charging ports. So it's not as easy right now as it would be if you need to get gas, you can just stop and go ahead and get 10 bucks a gas and move on. And that's that. So once that's built out once they have more of the charging ports, and that's one of the infrastructure built out, it's gonna take a while to get there. But once it is, I think it's, it's off to the races. I think me figured that out and need to figure out the time of charging because people don't want to sit down, you're already driving, you want to get to where you're going. People don't want to sit there for an hour, 30 minutes to an hour, I get their charge their car filled up to a charge that's acceptable for them to get from point A to point B. It's just not realistic. No, no one wants to do that. So they can get it to a point where it's maybe five to 10 minutes, and you're charged up and ready to go. I think that's much more realistic than the 30 minutes to an hour. So I think those are the two major gripes with regards to charging on the road. And then as well as the length of time charging when you do the charging. And then also the price point. I mean, you're seeing the cost come down. I think we're going to continue to see the cost come down for these cars as more are manufactured and more companies are entering into the space because competition drives down prices. But I don't know how fast that happens. I don't All Tesla's work on they have a car that's made 30 1000s. And they they're gonna need to get manufacturers getting to meet me to make some cheaper cars there for it to really catch on. So, from that side of it, yeah, some things need to go. Some things need to get built out here on the west coast, from my understanding, they have all this built out already the charging infrastructure. And so that's all there. And it is, has caught on much fashion at West Coast. But we always see those things. From an investing standpoint, I'm also because I'm excited us consumer, I think I really like it as an investment as well. But the tricky part is with regards to something like this an industry that's so brand new, is what company do you pick? How do you decide what's a good company, all you hear is Tesla Tesla Tesla, and then you have the fourth of the world and the Chevy's and these other car manufacturers that are getting to a point where they're starting to really make an effort to have electric cars. Very cool. That's awesome. So it's really okay, it's Tesla, and then everyone else, there's got to be some other competition that comes through. And I think we're gonna see a lot of startups come out over the next couple of years of electric cars kind of coming to the forefront of consumers minds. So we're gonna, we're gonna see those startups come up, and whether it's a battery technology startup, charging port startup, just a startup in general, that we're gonna make cars, like lucid air just went public, or car lucid went public, I think, what, two months ago at this point, through spec deal. And so they're public now. And I think we're gonna see a lot more like that, where you have these companies coming into the play. And it's, as a consumer, as an investor at that point, you're trying to decide, okay, which ones are realistic going forward? Not every startup that starts ultimately has a good ending? Honestly, a lot of them don't have a good ending. So what company do you pick as the winner. And this is where I think from an investing standpoint, you really simplify the approach. And instead of picking, I am all in on Tesla, I am all in on Ford, I'm all in on, enter whatever company name you want. I think instead you take a basket approach, you take a mutual fund or an ETF, any electric car space going forward. And I think you just kind of leg into that, whether it's dollar cost averaging or whatever investment strategy you want. I think that would be potentially the best path forward for individuals at that point. Because trying to pick the winner out of everything that's going to happen is pretty hard. There's just too many moving parts for something like this. The regulation still has to be there going forward from a government and what are they going to do tax break wise, like they have done in the past, when more solid numbers come out about those that actually save you money versus having a gas powered car, how good for the environment is it, I still think there's a lot of room to run with these things. But I think they get ironed out over the next five to 10 years. So instead of picking a company that I think is gonna win over the next five to 10 years, I think having a little bit of all of them. And those watched the the tide bring all of those companies up, I think is the best path forward for for most people, obviously, everyone's situation is different. And if you feel differently, then by all means, do your own research and pick what you feel you're comfortable and confident. And but I think you can't really go wrong with a mutual fund or ETF approach when you're trying to diversify over the entire industry. And the last thing I kind of want to talk about, and it's probably the thing I'm most excited about, and I said it goes hand in hand with electric cars, and that is autonomous driving. I think that's probably the coolest thing possible. Going forward from a consumer standpoint, something you can buy and use every day. And I know a lot of people you see all the negative headlines of the cars crash, people fall asleep behind the wheel and negligence behind it. I think all that's gonna get figured out as well. It's it's so much in its infancy right now where it's hard to really judge autonomous driving because people don't think the AI can do it effectively and efficiently over time. And I just don't think that's true. I think we're seeing technology grow at a rapid pace that At last, it is very hard to comprehend. And once you really do wrap your mind around it, I think you get a good idea that in the next five to 10 years, autonomous vehicles might be what everyone has, and instead of you being behind the wheel, there still be a wheel and everything. Else, but instead you controlling at point A to point B, I don't think that's going to be the case. And the other side of it is I think once autonomous vehicles come out, like we have our Ubers. Now our lifts now our taxi services now. And Tesla has toyed with the idea, but I think we might see going forward. Companies just make a fleet of autonomous vehicles. And they act like a taxis taxi service, and you just have like a monthly subscription to something like that. I think that'd be pretty cool. Where you spend 50 bucks a month, and pretty much anytime you want, you just go into the app requests, an autonomous vehicles come pick you up, they come get you take you to point A to point B, and you never own your own car. Again, it's just a taxi service on a script subscription based model. Like that. I think that's a real possibility going forward as well. Once the technology of autonomy, autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles are there, to the point where everyone's comfortable and feel safe inside of them. But again, that's some time to go i'd my timeframe, like I said a couple times, is I think in the next five to 10 years, we're gonna see this and really, really come to fruition as a consumer, I'm super excited about it. As an investor I'm super excited about I think it's gonna change a lot of things over time that maybe right now we can't really wrap our minds around but I think it's definitely definitely going to be some change so I'm super excited about it guys, but that's I'm going to wrap up this episode. So thanks for listening. I'm excited to get this project started like I just did here. So I'm excited to turn these out. When I'm in the car we so often and talk about some things whether it's finance or not related and whatever it may be, but I appreciate it guys and I'll see you on the next one. Securities offered through Securities America Inc. Member FINRA slash SIPC. advisory services offered through Securities America advisors Inc. Wealth Management Services and Securities America are separate entities. The opinions and forecasts expressed are those of the author and may not actually come to pass. This information is subject to change at any time based on market and other conditions and should not be construed as a recommendation of any specific security or investment plan. Past performance does not guarantee future results.