Electric vehicle shares have done well this year, and analysts are still broadly optimistic on the sector. The Global X Autonomous and Electric Vehicles exchange-traded fund, which includes companies across multiple parts of the EV supply chain, is up around 16% in the year to date. They include companies involved in developing autonomous vehicle software and hardware; EV manufacturers; and those that make EV components such as lithium batteries and critical EV materials such as lithium and cobalt. Analysts have recently been bullish on various corners of the EV industry , believing in the long-term future of the sector. The Global X Autonomous and Electric Vehicles ETF is one of a number of ETFs that offer a way to invest in a basket of stocks across the supply chain. About a third of the 76 holdings are tech and communications stocks, with industrials, materials, auto stocks and others making up the rest. For investors who want to buy EV-related stocks, CNBC Pro screened the Global X Autonomous and Electric Vehicles ETF for stocks with more than 30% upside over the next 12 months. They also have buy ratings of at least 50%, and have more than seven analysts covering them. The following stocks showed up. A good mix of automakers, semiconductor firms, lithium producers made the screen. Both traditional automakers with EV businesses as well as EV makers showed up, such as Chinese brand Geely , U.S. automaker General Motors , and French company Renault . Analysts gave General Motors the highest potential upside at 58%. Geely had the highest buy rating at 72.7%. Lithium producers include Livent and Piedmont Lithium — the latter attracted the only 100% buy rating from analysts and a whopping potential upside of 165.1%. Lithium is a critical component in electric vehicle batteries. Luminar Technologies , which develops safety technologies for self-driving cars and whose customers include EV companies, got the highest potential upside in the list (208%) but a buy rating on the lower side (50%). Semiconductor firms Nvidia and Infineon also turned up in the screen.
