Buying a piece of the future

How can a retail investor gain access to aluminium – likely the hottest ‘green technology’ metal in the years to come?

- Petri Redelinghuys

Electric vehicles are the way of the future. There can be some arguments around which electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer is going to be the one to walk away with the whole pie, although as time goes by, we can see more and more competitors entering the space and perhaps who the ultimate winner is in terms of EV manufacturer becomes slightly less important. Particularly now that the more traditional automobile manufacturers are stepping up to the plate and bringing some good EV models to market. And no, we don’t mean listed EV manufacturers that have not built any cars yet. We mean the likes of VW, BMW, Toyota and many more.

We’ve also seen a shift in policy in developed markets with Europe and the US almost leading the charge with a variety of relatively close targets for 100% electric vehicle sales within the next decade or so. This is becoming an undeniable change that is on the horizon. The internal combustion engine will eventually be phased out in exchange for some form of electric vehicle, whether it is powered by hydrogen (very far off) or electricity, which of course is stored in batteries.

Some time ago, perhaps two years now, we wrote a piece about Tesla and what its future might look like given its market-leading position. Tesla has done well but buying into Tesla at this stage might not be the wisest idea, although the company is finally turning a profit. It is still very overvalued and difficult to justify buying for long-term investors at these levels.