 Promoting alternative transportation fuels: The role of government in New Zealand, Brazil, and CanadaJayant Sathaye, Barbara Atkinson and Stephen Meyers Energy, 1989, vol. 14, issue 10, 575-584 Abstract: We discuss policies and programs designed to accelerate adoption of alternative fuel vehicles that were implemented in the 1970s and early 1980s in New Zealand, Brazil, and Canada. We describe the evolution of government and industry programs, the degree of market adoption of alternative fuels, and the interaction between the government, industry, and consumers. The experience in the countries, particularly Brazil, demonstrates that it is possible to develop a large market for alternative fuels within a reasonable time period if there is a favorable financial environment and efforts are undertaken to overcome uncertainty on the part of industry and consumers. Substantial market penetration required a strong commitment of effort and resources by the government, particularly in the early stages of market development, when fuel suppliers, the vehicle conversion industry, and automakers were wary of investing in new technology for which the market was uncertain. Consumers were reluctant to invest in vehicle conversion, even when the return on investment was quite favorable. Assurance of fuel availability and technical quality of vehicles have proven to be important factors. Date: 1989 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:14:y:1989:i:10:p:575-584 DOI: 10.1016/0360-5442(89)90086-8 Access Statistics for this article Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser More articles in Energy from Elsevier |
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