Emerging Opportunities

Charging Infrastructure

Charging infrastructure is the network every electric vehicle must use to recharge, forever. Its deeper lesson: when a big shift is underway, you don't have to pick the winner to profit. You can own the necessary chokepoint (the toll booth) that every participant, winner or loser, must pass through, which is often lower-risk and more durable than betting on one contestant.

  • Beginner
  • 11 min total
  • 12 chapters

What decision this helps you make: Whether to build enabling infrastructure for a shift, and, more broadly, how to profit from a boom by owning its toll booth rather than betting on its winner.

What this topic is

The stations, hardware, software, and services that let electric vehicles recharge: a recurring necessity the whole shift to electric transportation depends on.

Why it matters

It shows you can profit from a major shift without picking its winner, by owning the necessary chokepoint every participant must pass through, a recurring, defensible, utility-like position.

Who should learn it

Would-be founders and investors, and anyone learning to bet on a shift itself rather than gamble on its winner.

What you will understand

  • Every electric vehicle needs to charge, repeatedly, for life
  • Charging is a necessary chokepoint of a growing flow, a toll booth
  • You profit whichever vehicle brand wins, so you needn't pick one
  • Owning the toll booth on a shift is often surer than being the fastest car

Prerequisites

Common misconception

"To profit from a big shift, you have to pick the winner." You don't. Picking the winner is hard and most bets lose, but the enabling infrastructure is needed no matter who wins. Owning the toll booth every participant must pass through lets you profit from the shift itself, without gambling on its contestants.