Editor's note: Big changes are coming to the auto industry...

Our friend and tech investor Matt McCall says the unstoppable forces at work in the sector are creating a "perfect storm" of opportunity. Matt, a chief investment analyst at our corporate affiliate InvestorPlace, is known for spotting innovative trends and picking stocks years before they take off... sometimes by 1,000% or more.

In today's Masters Series, we're sharing a recent essay from Matt about the major transformation taking place for automakers. He reveals the four biggest "disruptions" he sees coming to this corner of the market... including what these changes mean for legacy auto companies... and what he believes is one of the best ways to invest in the trend today...

Four Disruptive Auto Industry Changes Creating the 'Perfect Storm'

By Matt McCall, editor, InvestorPlace

Would you swap out your current gas-powered car for an electric one?

How about if the government gave you a "deep" discount on the new car to get you to do it?

That's what Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer recently told The Verge that he would like to see included in a huge infrastructure bill Congress expects to turn to soon. He would like incentives for every American to make the move to electric vehicles ("EVs").

I'm not convinced it will happen, but even proposing something that massive tells us all we need to know about the hypergrowth trend of EVs.

Regardless of what happens with incentives, the trend is unstoppable... and investors are jumping on board.

Even the stocks of old automakers are on the move. Ford Motor (F) and General Motors (GM) are up about 35% each just since the start of the year. And Volkswagen (VWAGY) has surged more than 50% in 2021.

It's not because their old cars are getting that much better. It's because they plan to shift to electric vehicles.

That's one of multiple changes coming to the auto industry as we head into what I call the "Roaring 2020s." Here are four major disruptions on the way that create a "perfect storm" of change and opportunity...

Disruptive Change No. 1: The Decline of the Internal Combustion Engine

Some of the world's largest industries have been created to extract fossil fuels, refine them, and burn them while getting from point A to point B.

But over the past decade, EV technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, and companies like those we just talked about are all-in. Before them, other automakers like Tesla (TSLA) and Toyota Motor (TM) invested incredible amounts of money in the pursuit of increasing the range and reliability of electric vehicles.

Toyota hopes to have a solid-state battery prototype working this year, which is a big step forward. These batteries are lighter, last longer, charge faster, and are safer than the lithium-ion batteries that are currently used.

In addition to technology improvements, EVs have governments on their side. Thanks to environmental concerns, governments in China and Europe are moving to phase out internal combustion engines and phase in EVs.

Bloomberg estimates that at least 50% of cars sold by 2040 will be electric. We're talking about an epic boom in EV sales.

What's coming is a profound shift in how the automotive industry works. I don't believe we'll see the "death of oil" anytime in the next decade. But we will see a massive shift toward EVs.

Disruptive Change No. 2: The Rise of Ride-Hailing Services

Thanks to ride-hailing services like Uber Technologies (UBER) and Lyft (LYFT), the concept of "car ownership" has radically changed in the minds of many consumers.

Instead of going through all the expenses and time associated with owning a car, many people – especially the under-40 crowd – would rather just "Uber it" to get where they need to go.

That's tens of millions of consumers who don't care about the American "car culture." This is a radical shift from days past.

I think we're already seeing the impact on sales. Total U.S. vehicle sales rebounded strongly coming out of the Great Recession, exceeding 18 million per month in mid-2015. But except for a couple of spikes since then, sales have largely plateaued and even trended lower.

Disruptive Change No. 3: The Rise of Autonomous Vehicles

Autonomous vehicle ("AV") technology has also grown by leaps and bounds over the past decade.

Self-driving cars have gone from a science-fiction fantasy to actually operating in the real world.

Waymo – owned by Google's parent Alphabet (GOOGL) – is successfully testing self-driving taxis in Phoenix, Arizona. And Tesla has invested enormous amounts of money into making its vehicles autonomous.

While estimates of AV adoption over the next 20 years are all over the place, it's safe to say this technology is extremely disruptive to the "old" transportation industry.

Disruptive Change No. 4: The Growing Importance of 'Tech' in Cars

Finally, we have the "in car" experience.

Riding in cars of the future is going to be drastically different than riding in cars in the 1990s.

The transformation is already underway. From entertainment systems to navigation systems to voice-activated controls to self-driving features, software-driven high technology plays a bigger role in cars every year.

Alphabet leads the world in self-driving car patents. The technology behind digital assistants – which are operated with voice commands – is dominated by Big Tech companies like Amazon (AMZN) and Google.

The mother of Big Tech changes will be cars that fly. That's right. Flying-car technology is advancing rapidly, and I believe flying cars will be a regular sight in cities around the world by the end of the 2020s.

Anyone who is six years old today and getting his driver's license in 10 years may drive – or maybe I should say pilot – something that looks more like what Cadillac unveiled earlier this year at the virtual Consumer Electronics Show ("CES") in Las Vegas...

But that's still a little further into the future. At the moment, EVs are the furthest along and the most imminent.

Sales are growing every year, and I expect they will hit hypergrowth as the cost of EVs continues to fall. ARK Invest predicts EVs will cost about the same as gasoline cars within the next couple of years. And then a couple of years after that, it expects EVs will be even cheaper.

That's the game-changer.

EVs are the future of transportation – whether the vehicle drives itself or not and whether it flies or not. And they will be made possible in large measure by next-generation battery technology.

Insiders are already calling this potential new battery a "paradigm shift" in energy technology. Forbes calls it simply: "The battery that could change the world."

Trust me, it's amazing.

Folks who get in on this breakthrough now – before it's rolled out on a mass scale – will have the chance to be a part of one of the biggest legal creations of wealth in the last 25 years.

Best regards,

Matt McCall

Editor's note: Matt has spent his career finding investment opportunities in industries undergoing transformative changes... including 22 different stocks that could have made you 10 times your money or more. Now, he has identified a new technology coming to the biotech sector that he's calling the "story of the decade"...

In short, Matt believes we're on the verge of an unprecedented stock market boom – and he thinks biotechnology will lead the way. According to Matt, one stock that's part of a revolutionary new health care treatment could climb as much as 500% this year alone...

Until Monday, he's sharing the details of this breakthrough medical technology – and why you should get in immediately while it's still in the early stages – in a brand-new presentation. Get the critical details right here.