National Environmental Policy and the Global Success of Next-Generation Automobiles

Marian Beise and Klaus Rennings
Additional contact information
Marian Beise: Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration (RIEB), Kobe University, Japan

No 154, Discussion Paper Series from Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University

Abstract: In this article, we identify the most crucial factors for the potential world market success of different alternative car designs: fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), battery electric vehicles (BEVs), and conventional fuel efficient vehicles (FEVs). We first assess which vehicle concept is favoured under which regulation regime. We suggest that the global success of a certain technology critically depends on the ability of a regional lead mar-ket to leverage and transfer its local success, through large cost reductions or the international diffusion of a pioneering environmental regulation for instance. Although FCVs are still in the demonstration phase, the US has set the stage for a direct switch to FCVs. The Japanese regulatory regime favours HEVs as the next-generation engine design, while the development of the traditional combustion engine towards enhanced fuel efficiency is most likely in Europe. Due to the high cost of FCVs and the lack of strict regula-tion supporting this radical innovation, incremental innovations such as new versions of con-ventional combustion engines and hybrid cars have the best chances of becoming globally successful.

Keywords: Lead market; Environmental technologies; Zero emission vehicles; Fuel efficient cars (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O33 Q42 Q55 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17 pages
Date: 2004-03
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.rieb.kobe-u.ac.jp/academic/ra/dp/English/dp154.pdf First version, 2004 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kob:dpaper:154

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Paper Series from Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University 2-1 Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe 657-8501 JAPAN. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Office of Promoting Research Collaboration, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University ().