Neutralizing Your Peak Oil Risk
by Tom Konrad Lifestyle Risks from Peak Oil In the US, we all have a large exposure to the risk of rising energy prices. In addition to the cost of gasoline, the whole US economy runs on oil, so a rise in the oil price is likely to affect our jobs, and the prices of all our assets, including our homes. If other people have less money to spend and invest because of high oil prices, there will be a fall in demand for anything they were buying or investing in. House prices in exurbs and suburbs where the...
Storm Warnings For Lithium-ion Batteries and Electric Vehicles
John Petersen Before moving to Switzerland in 1998 I lived and worked in Houston, Texas, a place that teaches you the importance of keeping an eye on long-term weather forecasts, particularly during hurricane season. Most of the time it turns out to be wasted effort because Mother Nature is fickle and highly unpredictable, but when it's important it's really important. The same logic holds for investments in energy storage and electric vehicle technologies. You have to keep a close eye on the industrial and regulatory climate and be ready to change your plans when conditions change. For...
ZAP Announces Receipt of $21,000,000 in New Purchase Orders for Smart Car
ZAP (ZAPZ) received orders from major U.S. automotive dealers at their annual convention, signing purchase orders in excess of $21,000,0000 for the Smart Car Americanized by ZAP. ZAP is making its debut of the Smart Car to U.S. dealers at the annual National Auto Dealer Association (NADA) Conference and Exposition in New Orleans. CEO Steve Schneider said the purchase orders that ZAP received exceeded their projections. ZAP's goal was to collect new orders totaling $20 million to launch its distribution plans for the Smart Car. The socially responsible, public company based in Northern California has a business plan...
List of Electric Vehicle and Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle Stocks
Electric Vehicle (EV) and Plug-in Electric Vehicle (PHEV) stocks are publicly traded companies which produce EVs or PHEVs, their components, or charging infrastructure.
This list was last updated on 6/3/22.
AeroVironment, Inc. (AVAV)
Blink Charging Co. (BLNK)
BYD Company, Ltd. (BYDDY)
Enova Systems, Inc. (ENVS)
EEStor Corporation (ZNNMF)
Electrameccanica Vehicles Corp. (SOLO)
Envision Solar International (EVSI)
EVgo, Inc. (EVGO)
Fisker (FSR)
GreenPower Motor Co. (GPV.V)
iShares Self-Driving EV and Tech ETF (IDRV)
Kandi Technologies Corp. (KNDI)
KraneShares Electric Vehicles and Future Mobility Index ETF (KARS)
Leo Motors (LEOM)
Lordstown Motors Corp. (RIDE)
Navitas Semiconductor Corporation (NVTS)
Nio Inc. (NIO)
Nikola Corporation (NKLA)
Proterra Inc. (PTRA)
Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA)
UQM Technologies (UQM)
Valeo SA (FR.PA, VLEEF, VLEEY)
Vision Marine Technologies Inc. (VMAR)
VMoto Limited...
Big Firms Positioned in Alternative Energy Field
TheStreet.com has a good write up about the new potential growth opportunities that are available in the Alternative Energy marketplace. "With oil recently passing the $50 mark and expected to stay high some investors feel freshly tempted by alternative energy stocks. They view fuel cells and sunshine and windmills as ultimate replacements for diminishing supplies of fossil fuels. Thus, they tend to look past the alternative fuel industry's current losses and focus on future possibilities instead." The following companies are mentioned in this article: Ballard Power (BLDP) FPL Group Inc (FPL) Fuelcell Energy...
Watch Out For Nissan
An interesting short piece in Wired's Autopia discussing Nissan's 2007 Altima Hybrid. This is interesting because it is available now and at a reasonable price, and so the impact on company sales can be measured in the short term. I'm always wary of announcements involving technologies (let alone mass production) that are years away. This harks back to the idea of bridge, or transition, technologies. Companies that are finding ways to make money from existing technologies while still keeping eye on promising future technologies are worth keeping on the radar.
The Best Peak Oil Investments: PTRP – Powershares Global Progressive Transport Portfolio
Tom Konrad CFA Many investors find the prospect of selecting individual stocks simply too daunting. For those investors interested in investing in peak oil, but uncomfortable with the risks and moral dilemmas inherent in oil company stocks, there is another option: Powershares Global Progressive Transportation Portfolio (PTRP). I've been researching and writing this series about investments that will benefit from peak oil for half a year. If you've read the 20+ articles in the series so far, you've learned about several stocks that should be well positioned to benefit from rising oil prices, and you should...
The Obama High-Speed Rail Strategy: What Will Happen When The Steel Meets The Track?
Over the past few weeks, John Petersen has written a number of very insightful articles on the energy storage space, with a particular focus on automotive applications. To be sure, this sector has gotten a lot more exciting since Obama's election, with real dollar commitments coming from the government and even tangible signs that certain technologies are moving into the mainstream. It is fair to say that, on the back of explicit state support, batteries and smart grid have dethroned solar as the new "hot" thing in alt energy/cleantech. Equally exciting in my view is the...
Battery Investing for Beginners, Part 3; Resetting The Cheap vs. Cool Baseline
9.30.09 Cheap vs Cool John Petersen I've been blogging about pure-play energy storage device manufacturers since July 2008. By mid-November I'd assembled a short list of thirteen pure-play public companies that accounted for almost 25% of the $30 billion global battery market. Frankly I was shocked to learn that major battery manufacturers like Exide (XIDE) and Enersys (ENS) that report billions in annual sales carried tiny market capitalizations when compared with far riskier technology development companies like Ener1 (HEV) and Valence Technology (VLNC) that would be little more than rounding errors on the big boys' financial statements....
Hybrid Technologies and the California Highway Patrol ‘CHP’ to Showcase Hybrid’s Lithium Powered Chopper...
Hybrid Technologies Inc. (HYBT) is proud to announce that the historic CHP memorial chopper powered by the Hybrid Technologies Lithium system will be presented to media and the public in a ceremonial CHP ride across California. The initial press conference will be held in Los Angeles, California and is part of a CHP and CAHP weeklong event surrounding graduation and memorial services for the legendary California Highway Patrol.
ZAP Announces Orders of $4.98 Million for SMART Car
ZAP (ZAPZ) announced it has received a second 100-unit wholesale purchase order for the SMART Car, bringing the total in wholesale fleet orders in hand to $4.98 million. ZAP is in discussion with a number of government and corporate fleets as well as automotive wholesale dealers for purchase orders of 100 or more cars by December 31, 2004. ZAP unveiled the SMART Car to U.S. consumers in November at the San Francisco International Auto Show, announcing that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued a Letter of Conformity. This regulatory approval clears the way for ZAP to begin...
Alternative Energy Technologies and the Origin of Specious
John Petersen Thanks to a recent comment from JLBR, I've found a new hero in Dr. Peter Z. Grossman, an economics professor from Butler University who cogently argues that government attempts to force alternative energy technologies into an R&D model that was created for the Manhattan Project and refined for the Space Program will always result in commercial disaster because "the goal of the Apollo Program was the demonstration of engineering prowess while any alternative energy technology must succeed in the marketplace." In a recent article titled "The Apollo Fallacy and its Effect on U.S. Energy Policy" Dr....
Electric Cars, The Insanity Escalates
John Petersen On January 28th the DOE announced the closing of a $1.4 billion ATVM loan to Nissan North America, a unit of Nissan Motors (NSANY), for the purpose of retooling a factory in Smyrna, Tennessee to produce the Leaf, a zero emission electric car that will be released later this year. Nissan will use the loan proceeds to create "up to 1,300 American jobs" at a cost of about $1.3 million each and the 200,000 Leafs it hopes to produce and sell each year will "conserve up to 65.4 million gallons" of gas, a whopping 327 gallons...
Energy Storage: Q3 2012 Winners and Losers
John Petersen I usually write a quarterly recap to summarize what happened in the energy storage and vehicle electrification sectors, but Q2 was a tough enough period that I don't see much sense in dwelling on the bloodletting. So instead of focusing on the past, I'll offer a quick summary table with lots of red ink and turn my attention to Q3, which is shaping up as a time of bright opportunity for some companies and profound risk for others. I expect three companies in my tracking group to perform very well in Q3 –...
SatCon’s Hybrid Electric Vehicle and Pulse Power Technology is Awarded ARL Contract
SatCon Technology Corporation (SATC) announced that it has been awarded a contract with the U. S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) to assist in the development of power conversion electronics and controls in two key technology areas. These are power control and conversion systems for hybrid electric vehicles and pulse energy applications such as active armor. The contract has a current value of $2.8 million through 2007.
The Best Peak Oil Investments: Smart Transportation
Tom Konrad CFA What the Smart Grid will do for electricity, "Smart Transportation" will do for road-based travel. Here are eight companies making Smart Transportation a reality. Congestion and Peak Oil In late 2005 Houston was evacuated as hurricane Rita approached. The memory of Hurricane Katrina was still fresh in everyone's mind, and Houston, also called the Oil Capitol of the World, is extremely car-dependent. 100-mile traffic jams quickly formed on all the major routes out of the city. Many people were stranded as their cars ran out of gas from driving for hours just...
