National Environmental Policy and the Global Success of Next-Generation Automobiles
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.Download Info
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.Bibliographic Info
Paper provided by Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University in its series Discussion Paper Series with number 154.Length: 17 pages
Date of creation: Mar 2004
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:kob:dpaper:154
Contact details of provider:
Postal: 2-1 Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe 657-8501 JAPAN
Phone: +81-(0)78 803 7036
Fax: +81-(0)78 803 7059
Web page: http://www.rieb.kobe-u.ac.jp/index-e.html
More information through EDIRC
Related research
Keywords: Lead market; Environmental technologies; Zero emission vehicles; Fuel efficient cars;Find related papers by JEL classification:
- Q55 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation
- Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
- O33 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change; Research and Development; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
- Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Rennings, Klaus & Beise, Marian, 2003. "Lead Markets of Environmental Innovations: A Framework for Innovation and Environmental Economics," ZEW Discussion Papers 03-01, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Tiwari, Rajnish & Herstatt, Cornelius, 2012. "India - a lead market for frugal innovations? Extending the lead market theory to emerging economies," Working Papers 67, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.
Lists
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.Statistics
Access and download statisticsCorrections
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kob:dpaper:154For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Office of Promoting Research Collaboration, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University).
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

