“Folks have been predicting that electric vehicles were the way of the future since they first started appearing in the 19th century,” says our technology authority Ray Blanco.

That’s right: some thirty years before the American Civil War, Scottish inventor Robert Anderson devised the first crude battery-powered carriage in 1832. Mind blown?

“But there’s been a single problem when it comes to mass adoption,” says Ray. “Up until recently, batteries have been too big… too heavy… too expensive… too weak… too fragile…and/or too hard to recharge to make them practical for everyday automobiles.

“Today, engineers have solved most of those problems, producing batteries that make electric cars a viable alternative to fossil-fueled ones,” he says, “by making batteries smaller, more powerful, more convenient and, most importantly, as inexpensive as possible.

“That’s assuming battery development stays on its current path,” Ray says. “It doesn’t take into consideration a major development like the one Elon Musk has promised…

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Your Rundown for Wednesday, December 1, 2021...

Battery Dealerships?

“The driving force behind Tesla announced in April 2019 that he was working to equip his Teslas with a million-mile battery,” Ray continues. “To be clear, Musk is not saying the battery will run for a million miles without charging. Instead, he’s talking about the battery’s overall longevity.

“Current electric-vehicle batteries only have an eight-year or 50,000-mile warranty on them,” he says. “They’re expected to run for as many as 500,000 miles. Past that, they may no longer be able to hold a charge -- meaning electric car owners will have no choice but to buy a whole new battery or a whole new car.” (There goes reduce, reuse, recycle!)

But this tweet gets it…

Intriguing…

“One million miles might not sound like a big deal,” says Ray. “Most folks only drive about 13,500 miles a year. But truckers, taxi drivers and more could hit that limit much faster, which might make them reluctant to switch to electric vehicles.

“So obviously, a battery that can keep charging and recharging up to a million miles,” Ray concludes, “will be a major game-changer.”

Or as Ray notes: “The battery market alone is slated to grow by double digits per year, topping $85 billion by 2025.

“Meanwhile, the batteries for electric cars have become so inexpensive and reliable that the electric vehicle market overall is expected to become larger than that for traditional vehicles by 2040.”

Market Rundown for Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021

S&P 500 futures are up 1.6% to 4,640.

Oil’s up 3.7% to $68.65 for a barrel of WTI.

Gold is up $12.40 per ounce to $1,788.90.

Bitcoin is up 2.3% at the time of writing to $58,795.

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You all have a great day. We’ll be back with more on Friday.

For the Rundown,

Aaron Gentzler
Editor, The Rundown
TheRundownFeedback@StPaulResearch.com