Investment themes are important, because they can be drivers of returns for many years to come. An investment theme is about seeing something that is coming long-term and understanding the dynamics in such a way that you are able to profit from it. This is appealing because most investors on wall street does not have the same long term view that you as a private investor can have. Therefore something that will happen 4-5-6 years down the road, might not be priced into stock prices yet. This is a first of many post on an important investment theme in my portfolio.
Even before the launch of the Tesla Model S I have been intrigued by how electric vehicles will be a major game changer. With the success of Tesla I have dug much deeper into what this will mean for the future, and how to play this to make money. If I allow myself to dream a little bit, my vision in a not too distant future is self-driving electric cars, powered by cheap electricity or rooftop solar-panels. I was going to write a long post about how this will come about, relating to S-curves and such, but then I came across this excellent video by Bloomberg which sums it up nicely. Although they put a oil spin on the story, the basic message is the same, Electric Vehicles (EV), are coming to take over.