Take a moment and look around your home. I will guess you have at least one smartphone, a laptop computer, and probably an e-reader or two. You may have a smartwatch on your wrist as well.

I’m sure there are also remote controls, smoke detectors, clocks and watches, small appliances, flashlights, maybe children’s toys. Oh, and then your car in the garage or outside your window.

On some level, our daily lives run on batteries.

Most still use the lithium-ion technology introduced in 1980 by Dr. John Goodenough. In 2019, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for it.

Lithium-ion batteries are in just about everything. And while there have been improvements in size and density, there have been no breakthroughs in battery technology for the last 40 years.

So what’s Dr. Goodenough up to today? Smart investors need to know the answer to that question…

John Goodenough is now 98 years old, and he apparently has a good internal battery.

He is still a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and he continues to work on the next battery technology.

If I live to be 98, I hope I still have the energy, drive, and vision to be working the way he is.

Late last year, Dr. Goodenough’s lab announced a partnership with a small startup company called Energy Exploration Technologies, or EnergyX. The goal…

To explore solid state battery research and development.

The consensus among most investors and energy experts is that a new battery technology will be developed during the Roaring 2020s. Regular MoneyWire readers know I have been saying this for a few years now.

All along, I have expected solid state batteries to emerge as that new technology. I am more convinced than ever that’s the case… and that investors have a unique opportunity to build wealth from this massive trend.

When the man who introduced the ubiquitous lithium-ion battery in 1980 is on board, it’s tough to ignore the potential.

And when a number of billionaires and large companies are also investing hundreds of millions of dollars into the new battery technology, we’d be crazy to ignore it.

Just last week, BMW and Ford (NYSE:F) announced that they will lead a $130 million investment into Solid Power, a U.S.-based solid state battery startup. The company already produces solid state batteries, and it plans to make bigger ones to power electric vehicles (EVs). Solid Power expects to supply BMW and Ford with solid state batteries for a pilot program next year.

That’s big news, especially since BMW plans to put solid state battery-powered vehicles into road tests by 2025 and make them available to consumers by 2030.

BMW and Ford join the parade of car companies already on board this train. Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM) is the leader when it comes to auto manufacturers. Its goal is to launch a solid state battery-powered vehicle at some point this year — well ahead of its competition.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) will likely follow suit, with Nissan (OTCMKTS:NSANY) probably next in line.

What’s so great about solid state batteries?

They are safer for one thing because they don’t have that liquid battery “acid” inside. Those liquids are highly flammable and toxic, so they are a risk for users and the environment. They also take up more space than what we really want in devices today.

The bottom line is that solid state batteries are safer, cheaper, lighter, and offer better battery life. That makes them a disruptive technology within a massive trend taking shape now.

Ford Chief Product and Operations Officer Hau Thai-Tang highlighted the improved “energy density” in an interview with the Associated Press:

“For customers, that basically means they can drive farther with the more range. So as you get better energy and power density, the cells get smaller. That allows the vehicles to become lighter for the same range, as well as more space for people and their things instead of for batteries. And then, of course, cost. Being able to drive the cost-per-kilowatt-hour down will speed up the adoption of battery electric vehicles.”

And that’s the tipping point.

The first time an EV is cheaper than the average gas-powered vehicle will be a major milestone. The breakthrough will push a lot of prospective car buyers to strongly consider an EV… and that day is coming quickly.

Within just the next two years, estimates are the average cost of a 250-mile range EV will fall to $24,000 — while the average cost of the gasoline-powered Toyota Camry rises to $25,000. By 2024, ARK Invest predicts EV prices will drop to $17,000 while the Toyota Camry remains constant at $25,000.

I would be bullish on solid state batteries based on their use in EVs alone, but I am extremely bullish on their long-term potential because of almost limitless other applications as well.

Consider the Internet of Things (IoT) as just one example. By the end of this decade, Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) estimates that 500 billion devices will be connected to the internet. More connected devices mean sensors and chips everywhere, and they all need a power source that is long lasting, safe, and often tiny.

Solid state batteries meet all three requirements.

So just as lithium-ion batteries are the “backbone” of your household today, solid state batteries will be the backbone of the Roaring 2020s and all its technological innovations.

That’s why I created a Solid State Batteries Portfolio for my Investment Opportunities readers. It has more than tripled over the last two-plus years, and I see more to come.

Breakthrough battery technology will power the electric vehicles of the future and just about everything else we can imagine. This hypergrowth trend is well underway, but it’s still early… and there is still time to get for the biggest profits.