This Week's ETF Launches: Global X Hits the Gas on New Driverless & Electric Vehicles ETF

The driverless car revolution is the “next big thing” in tech, so it’s no surprise that the ETF world has jumped on the trend.

The autonomous and electric vehicles are still in their nascent stages, so there’s very little in the way of pure plays in the space. However, that didn’t stop Global X from becoming the third ETF provider to bring a new fund to the market.

Here are this week’s new fund launches:

For a list of all new ETF launches, take a look at our ETF Launch Center.

The Global X Autonomous & Electric Vehicles ETF (DRIV B-) hits the road this week. It looks to invest in companies that are involved in the development or production of the components and technology that go into the AV/EV industry. This may include not only the vehicles themselves, but also the software, batteries and materials that would go into those vehicles. The driverless and electric vehicle industry is in its very early stages, but growth is expected to ramp up quickly over the next couple of decades. It’s estimated that in 2040, more than 50% of new vehicles sold will be electric and that autonomous vehicle sales, according to IHS Markit, will top 33 million.

Top holdings for the fund currently include Microsoft (MSFT), Samsung, Intel (INTC) and Toyota. Its 0.68% expense ratio puts it right in line with its two peers, the KraneShares Electric Vehicles & Future Mobility ETF (KARS C) and the Innovation Shares NextGen Vehicles & Technology ETF (EKAR C).

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The NextShares funds are a group of exchange-traded managed funds (ETMFs) that cover both equity and fixed income, both domestically and around the world. This week, the roster expands by two with the addition of the Causeway Global Value NextShares (CGVIC ) and the Causeway International Value NextShares (CIVEC ).

ETMFs are considered a hybrid between mutual funds and ETFs. They combine the quarterly reporting structure and confidentiality of mutual funds with the tax efficiency of ETFs. In defining value, the fund managers look for companies with low P/E ratios relative to their sector, high yields relative to the overall market, low price-to-book and price-to-cash-flow ratios.

Click here to learn more about ETMFs and their differences with ETFs.

The robotics and artificial intelligence theme has been one of the market’s hottest trends over the past year and a half. Direxion has an endless lineup of leveraged and inverse funds, and it now adds the Direxion Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Automation Index 3X Bull Shares ETF (UBOT B-) to the lineup. It looks to deliver 300% of the daily price performance of the Indxx Global Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Thematic Index.

According to the provider, the index targets exchange-listed companies in developed markets that are expected to benefit from the adoption and utilization of robotics and/or artificial intelligence, including companies involved in developing industrial robots and production systems, automated inventory management, unmanned vehicles, voice/image/text recognition, and medical robots or robotic instruments. The underlying index currently has approximately 46% of assets in industrial stocks, 40% in technology stocks and the balance in healthcare stocks.

Some of the economy’s hottest trends – driverless cars, robotics and artificial intelligence – all get some love from the ETF industry. The Autonomous & Electric Vehicles ETF will probably capture the most buzz, but it’s little more than a broad tech ETF at this point in the industry’s life cycle. Leveraged ETFs usually follow successful market trends, so it isn’t surprising that we see the robotics and AI space get the leveraged treatment. The NextShares lineup is up to 17 different funds managing roughly $150 million, demonstrating that there’s a burgeoning market for less traditional hybrid investment products.

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